All foods are superfoods because they deliver what each other can’t. For example, you wouldn’t look to get the same nutrients from butternut squash as you would spinach. Spinach probably gets the most attention during “diet season” due to the “eat your greens” mentality. Don’t get us wrong, greens are great, along with all of the other colors! So let’s unpack why spinach is an overall great choice to be including in your diet and lifestyle, along with other vegetables. 

As a side note, happy national spinach day! It is an extremely nutrient dense food filled with vitamins and minerals like vitamin a, c, k, folic acid, iron, calcium, and so on. It comes in at a whopping 23 calories per cup raw or 44 calories per cup cooked. Nutritionally speaking, it’s a great item to have on hand when you’re looking to amp up the nutrition. 

Some of the numerous health benefits it touts are reducing oxidative stress, lower blood pressure, cancer prevention, and so on. Spinach alone doesn’t do these things, but when incorporated into a balanced lifestyle that’s where we see these benefits come into play. So how can you start incorporating more you might be wondering? If you aren’t a spinach eater on the regular we suggest starting with frozen since it’s already been cooked for you and you can use it at your own convenience. We’ve all been there, where we buy a produce item and it goes bad before we can use it for a slew of reasons. By adding frozen spinach as a side dish it’s a great place to start but be sure to season it liberally! You can also add it into things like soups, grains, sauces and the like.

The last little fun fact we will leave you with is that canned spinach has more magnesium than it’s fresh and frozen counterparts. Cool, right? So if you are in need of a better night sleep try adding this as your side dish of choice at dinner or even pureed and baked into your brownies for dessert.