Spinach is a great Iron Rich Food. When boiled and drained it contains around 6 mg iron / cup and that makes it one of the best iron rich vegetables.
Early studies on spinach suggested that the oxalates in spinach would act as iron absorption inhibitors. Quite a few people are aware of these studies as many articles on the internet highlight this issue with spinach. And just like most people I was initially fooled into thinking that spinach is therefore not a very good source of iron.
But, there is good news.
More recent research actually shows that the absorption of non-heme iron, the type of iron found in plants and vegetables like spinach, is not significantly reduced by the oxalates in spinach. These oxalates apparently do impact the absorption of calcium, but how much is not clear yet and is also not our main concern here. We’re after iron afterall and spinach has plenty of that!
Apart from being one of our Iron Rich Foods, spinach is low in calories yet very high in vitamins, minerals and other phytonutrients. It is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, magnesium, folate, manganese, iron, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B2, potassium, vitamin B6 and much more.
This site is dedicated to iron deficiency and I won’t list all the nutrional data for spinach here. But if you want to know more about all the goodness in spinach including all its nutritional values see this spinach article over at World’s Healthiest Foods.
So in summary, spinach is a excellent source of iron and really an all round super-food. Make sure you add plenty of spinach to your diet, especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan.
Quick and Easy Tips to add Spinach into Your Diet:
- Add layers of steamed spinach to your next lasagna recipe.
- Pine nuts are a great addition to cooked spinach.
- Spinach salads are a classic easy and delicious meal or side dish.
Great Iron Rich Recipes with Spinach:
- Links will be added soon
- Links will be added soon
- Links will be added soon
