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If you’re looking for an easy way to add some nutrients into your diet, a little scoop of spinach powder could go a long way.
As its name suggests, the best spinach powder is made by grinding the ultra-healthy leafy vegetable into a fine green powder. This process retains much of spinach’s health benefits but offers an easier way to consume the veggie. Instead of frantically looking for recipes that include spinach (while it goes bad in your fridge) you can use spinach powder with a wide variety of foods — and smoothies. Plus, spinach powder has a much longer shelf life than leaf spinach.
What Are the Health Benefits of Spinach Powder?
As one of the healthiest foods around, the list of spinach’s benefits is extensive. Below are some of the most important advantages of eating spinach.
Eye Health: One of the foremost health benefits of spinach is it’s beta-carotene content. These carotenoids act as antioxidants, cleansing the body of harmful molecules called free radicals. Beta-carotenes (the kind of carotenoids found in spinach) have the added effect of improving eye health for better vision and less eye degradation due to age. Luckily, these beta-carotenes are maintained when spinach is turned into powder.
Iron: Spinach is probably most famous as a great source of iron. Just 100 grams of spinach contains about 2.7 milligrams of iron which is concentrated in powder form. Years ago, there was a myth that spinach contained far more iron, leading to spinach’s star role as Popeye’s food of choice. Now we know that it won’t make you grow massive biceps, but Popeye was onto something. Proper iron content in the body has numerous benefits such as more energy, athletic performance and better immune health.
Digestion: Because spinach powder is high in fiber, it’ll aid your body in digesting and expelling waste. Besides making your day a lot more comfortable (i.e. less constipation), this improved digestion can also help with weight loss and blood pressure.
Lower Cholesterol: While all leafy greens are good for heart health, dark leafy greens such as spinach work overtime to soothe the ticker. Again, you can thank the carotenoid content of spinach, as well as spinach’s lutein.
How to Use Spinach Powder
Spinach becomes much more useful once in powder form. It still has a mild spinach flavor that can upgrade a mellow dish or become nearly undetectable in other recipes. One of the most popular uses for spinach powder is in green smoothies and shakes, but you can also use the stuff in normal meals too. Throw some powder in homemade bread, pasta or eggs, add it to dips and dressings, or sprinkle a bit on cheese.
What to Know Before Buying Spinach Powder
Not all bottles of spinach powder are made the same. There are a few key differences to watch out for when picking up your new health-booster.
Flavor: Spinach powder has a noticeable flavor and, although it’s not strong, whatever you buy should taste good. This is especially important if you plan on making real dishes with the stuff such as adding it to scrambled eggs, or pasta.
Nutrition Facts: Spinach powder is straightforward. The best spinach powders have no extra ingredients or additives, but it’s still important to read the nutrition facts as they differ from brand to brand. Be sure to check the numbers for calcium, potassium, iron, and vitamins. Also, spinach powder does have some sodium. The lower the sodium the better, although most don’t have too much.
Package Size: If you’re a real spinach powder addict (that’s a good thing) you might want a larger bag.
Source Farm: When you buy fruits and veggies at the market, it’s always a good idea to note where they came from. The same goes for spinach powder. Some spinach is grown and processed in the U.S., but some brands outsource their farming to countries such as China.
