By Sarah Correa-Dibar
I bet you’re trying to get your children to take a bite of the leaves they swear are the enemy. Trust me, I was one of those kids. My dad would buy all of the Popeye VCRs just so he could tell us, “You see, that’s exactly what will happen if you eat spinach!”
Summer is all about baring your skin, so what better time to eat the vegetable that will make your skin shine like the summer sun? According to the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, spinach is good for your skin, all thanks to the leaf’s vitamin A that hydrates your skin, vitamin C that brightens it and vitamin K that heals dark spots — like those scary-looking eye bags you’ll get from long summer nights.
Because spinach is also high in antioxidants, you won’t ever have to skip out on any summer fun because you got sick. An article done for St. John’s Health Center says that the spinach’s high antioxidant concentration helps remove anything that might be damaging the cells that keep your body working.
Spinach will also get you ready for back-to-school and summer reading. Yes, you read that right! This veggie is also a brain food. According to a study done by Newswise, vitamin K also helps with brain health, in addition to lutein, folate and beta-carotene. Going hand-in-hand with the brain, spinach is also very beneficial to your eyes also, thanks to the lutein.
There are simple recipes you can add spinach to — like in your morning scrambled eggs. Crack two eggs and when they start cooking, you can add however much spinach you want. I usually add tomatoes to it for a great start to the day.
If you’re a fan of pesto, you can make spinach-basil pesto by blending fresh basil leaves, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, walnuts, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and adding it on top of chicken, in some pasta or bread!
By the end of the summer, you’ll have a tan and you’ll be a healthy, modern-day Popeye, if you will.
RELATED ARTICLES:
The Quest for the Perfect Running Shoe
