Go Green for Nourishment

“Eat your greens!” Greens have a well-earned reputation as nutritional powerhouses. Here are just some of the wonderful benefits they provide:

Stay Strong

Popeye was onto something—spinach contains protein, iron, and folate, nutrients your body needs to stay in tip-top shape. Fuel your workout with a cup of spinach in a smoothie or a salad—spinach is a high-quality source of protein containing all the essential amino acids.¹ Iron is an essential element in blood—about 70 percent of the body’s iron is stored in hemoglobin, which is essential for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the tissues.² And folate is required for protein metabolism, helps form healthy blood cells, supports cell growth and repair, and is necessary to form DNA and RNA.^{3 4}

Get Glowing

Vitamins A and C help fight free radicals and support clear and glowing skin from the inside out. One cup of kale contains 206 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A and 134 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C.⁵

Healthy Eyes and Clear Sight

Leafy greens are a great source of eye health-supporting nutrients like vitamin K, lutein, and zeaxanthin.⁶ Lutein is the most dominant carotenoid in brain tissue and vital to healthy eyesight, as it accumulates in the macula of the eye where it filters damaging blue light.^{7 8}

Healthy Digestion

Keep your gut happy with leafy greens like kale and collard greens that are rich in fiber and prebiotics. Fiber supports healthy digestion, and prebiotics feed your microbiome, supporting the immune system, strengthening the intestinal barrier, synthesizing essential vitamins, and supporting the body’s natural detoxification processes.^{9 10}

Keep Those Leaves Clean

Though full of nutritious benefits, leafy greens are a notorious mainstay on the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Dirty Dozen list, and in 2022 spinach, collards, kale, and mustard greens took second and third place. Conventional leafy green farming relies heavily on synthetic pesticides: the EWG’s testing found as many as 21 different pesticides on a single sample, finding a total of 103 different pesticides used on these leafy greens.¹¹ The most common pesticide found on conventional greens was dacthal, labeled by the EPA as a possible carcinogen and hormone disruptor.¹² When it comes to all your leafy greens, choosing organic is especially important. In addition to keeping pesticides out of your green salads and smoothies, organic greens have also shown to be higher in antioxidants and polyphenols.^{13 14}

P.S., March 26^th is National Spinach Day—celebrate with some delicious organic spinach!

Try Our Easy Super-Greens Soup

This soothing soup is healthy, comforting, and chock-full of superfoods. With garlic, ginger, turmeric, tomatoes, and a variety of greens, this soup is full of flavor and so easy to make.

References

1. Spinach Nutrition Information. Nutrition Data know what you eat. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2022, from https://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-spinach000000000000000000000.html
2. Gupta, C. P. "Role of iron (Fe) in body." IOSR Journal of Applied Chemistry 7, no. 11 (2014): 38-46.
3. Roberts, J. L., & Moreau, R. (2016). Functional properties of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) phytochemicals and bioactives. Food & Function, 7(8), 3337–3353. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6fo00051g
4. Folate (folic acid) – vitamin B9. The Nutrition Source. (2019, July 2). Retrieved November, 2022, from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/folic-acid/#:~:text=Folate….
5. Kale, Raw Nutrition Facts & Calories. SELF Nutrition Data. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2022, from https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/…
6. Yan, L. (n.d.). Dark Green Leafy Vegetables. USDA. Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/gfnd/gfhnrc/docs/news-2013/dark-gr….
7. Ahmad, Cawood, Iqbal, Ariño, Batool, Tariq, Azam, & Akhtar. (2019). Phytochemicals in Daucus carota and Their Health Benefits—Review Article. Foods, 8(9), 424. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods8090424
8. Kirsten L Molldrem, Jialiang Li, Philipp W Simon, Sherry A Tanumihardjo, Lutein and β- carotene from lutein-containing yellow carrots are bioavailable in humans, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 80, Issue 1, July 2004, Pages 131–136, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/80.1.131
9. Heintz-Buschart, A., & Wilmes, P. (2018). Human gut microbiome: Function matters. Trends in Microbiology, 26(7), 563–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2017.11.002
10. Yan, L. (n.d.). Dark Green Leafy Vegetables. USDA. Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/gfnd/gfhnrc/docs/news-2013/dark-green-leafy-vegetables/#:~:text=They%20also%20contain%20high%20levels,helps%20prevent%20certain%20birth%20defects
11. Group, E. W. (n.d.). Dirty Dozen™ fruits and vegetables with the most pesticides. EWG's 2022 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce | Dirty Dozen. Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
12. More than half of kale samples tainted by possibly cancer-causing pesticide. EWG's 2022 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce | Kale. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/kale.php
13. Moreira, Marı́a del R., Sara I. Roura, and Carlos E. del Valle. 2003. “Quality of Swiss Chard Produced by Conventional and Organic Methods.” LWT - Food Science and Technology  36 (1): 135–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0023-6438(02)00207-4.
14. Roumeliotis, Constantinos, Anastasios S. Siomos, and Dimitrios Gerasopoulos. 2021. “Comparative Nutritional and Antioxidant Compounds of Organic and Conventional Vegetables during the Main Market Availability Period.” Nitrogen 2 (1): 18–29. https://doi.org/10.3390/nitrogen2010002.