10 Health Benefits of Spinach You're Unaware of

Spinach is one of the healthiest vegetables in the world. Not only does it fulfill the nutritional requirements of the body, but also prevents and treats various physical ailments. If you have not yet added this leafy green vegetable to your diet, the below given benefits will certainly make you want to eat it, right away. 10 health benefits of spinach:

10. Improves Eyesight

Spinach is rich in beta carotene, xanthene and lutein, all of which are very good for your eyes. To enjoy the beta carotene benefits, you need to cook this leafy vegetable. It can prevent you from suffering from itchy eyes, dry eyes, and eye ulcers. All this is owing to the anti-inflammatory properties of this vegetable.

AMD can lead to blindness. This is because of degeneration of xanthene and lutein, which forms a central portion of your retina. According to some researches performed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the health benefits of spinach is that if you have them regularly can help you regain two important pigments and thus prevent AMD. This leafy green is also rich in antioxidants, which reduce the damaging effects of free radicals, which can have a negative impact on your vision, and lead to age-related issues like glaucoma.

8. Neurological Advantage

Spinach contains various components like folate, potassium, and antioxidants that offer you neurological benefits. As per Neurology, folate helps reduce the chances of Alzheimer’s disease, so if you are at a risk of cognitive or neural decline, then this vegetable should form a part of your daily diet. Potassium is great for brain health, and it helps improves neural activity, concentration, and flow of blood to the brain.

7. Strengthens Muscle

One of the several little-known health benefits of spinach is that it builds muscles. The leafy green contains a component known as C0-Q10. This is an antioxidant, which helps in strengthening muscles, particularly heart muscles, which pumps blood to your entire body. As per the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, you can use C0-Q10 to treat and prevent various cardiovascular diseases like heart failure, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, and hypertension.

6. Maintains Blood Pressure

Spinach is rich in potassium and low in sodium. Owing to this composition, this vegetable is great for people suffering from high blood pressure, as sodium increases blood pressure and potassium lowers it down. The folate present in this vegetable relaxes blood vessels and reduces hypertension, while maintaining good flow of blood. By relaxing tension of arteries and vessels, and by reducing your blood pressure, you can minimize the stress on your cardiovascular system. And also increase the supply of oxygen to your body’s organs.

5. Helps in Bone Mineralization

One of the health benefits of spinach is that its rich in Vitamin K, and this helps in retaining calcium in your bone matrix, thus helping in bone mineralization. Other minerals present like zinc, magnesium, phosphorous and copper also help build strong bones. This can help prevent you from suffering osteoporosis of bones. Moreover, these minerals are also needed for maintaining healthy nail and teeth.

4. Anti-Ulcerative

It has been seen that spinach and other vegetables can help protect the stomach’s mucous membrane, thus minimizing chances of gastric ulcers. Moreover, this leafy vegetable also contains glycocyclerolipids that can improve the strength of your digestive tract lining, thus preventing unwanted inflammation in that area.

3. Improves Metabolic Activity

Spinach contains more amount of protein compared to various other vegetables. And they get broken down into amino acids by enzymes that are important for humans. This helps in muscle growth and development, and the ability of the body to heal wounds. And also gives our entire metabolism a great boost. This in turn helps our entire organs to function at their best level.

2. Helps in Fetal Development

We bet you didn’t know that one of the health benefits of spinach is that it’s very helpful for growing fetus as it supports in developments of the new nervous system. Various birth defects like spina bifida and cleft palate can occur because of folate deficiency. This leafy green is also rich in Vitamin A, which is recommended to be consumed in good quantities by expecting mother. Vitamin A helps in the fetus’ lung development, and also can be transferred while breast-feeding. And so even new mothers should have spinach in good quantities.

1. Prevents Heart Diseases

The vitamins C and A present in spinach prevent oxidation of cholesterol and minimize chances of heart diseases. The oxidized cholesterol very easily clings to our blood vessel walls. And this is why it is very important to prevent this type of oxidation to avoid blockage in our arteries. Homocysteine is a chemical that is harmful to our bodies, and can result in strokes and heart attack. Spinach, contains a chemical called folate, which helps convert homocysteine into benign or harmless molecules. Magnesium present in the vegetable lowers blood pressure and keeps our heart safe from various diseases.

These are some of the amazing health benefits of spinach. If you want to open doors to great health, and want to avoid various health issues; Make sure you have this leafy green regularly.