Skip to main content

Learn About These 14 Amazing Benefits of Spinach

We all know that spinach is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. The superfood qualities of this dark, leafy green vegetable aren’t just reserved for fictitious heroes like Popeye the Sailor Man; we all can enjoy the health benefits of spinach by incorporating it into our diets.

Even if you’re not a salad person, there are plenty of ways to eat spinach. From steaming it, adding it to sandwiches, pureeing it into smoothies, or tossing it to wilt into sauces, spinach is nearly as versatile as it is healthy. If you’re needing some extra motivation to eat your vegetables, keep reading for a list of the many benefits of spinach.

Baby spinach in a bowl.
Unsplash

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a popular dark, leafy green vegetable used in numerous global cuisines. Perhaps owing to the fact that spinach originated in Persia, it is especially prominent in dishes native to the Middle East, Mediterranean, India, and Southeast Asia. Interestingly, spinach belongs to the amaranth family, so it’s related to foods like chard, beets, and quinoa.

There are a variety of benefits of spinach, which can be categorized into nutritional benefits, health benefits, and practical benefits.

Nutritional Benefits of Spinach

Green spinach leaves in a collander.
chiara conti/Unsplash

Spinach is packed with vitamins and minerals. Some of the top nutritional benefits of spinach include the following:

Spinach is low in calories.

One cup of fresh spinach contains only 7 calories, making it a nutrient-dense but not calorie-dense food. Spinach can be consumed in abundance without significantly affecting your caloric intake, so it’s a great food to support healthy weight loss and weight management.

Spinach is high in protein.

Spinach is surprisingly high in protein from a calorie standpoint. One cup of spinach contains 0.86 grams of protein and a 100-gram serving has nearly 3 grams.

Spinach is low in natural sugar.

Sugar contains very little sugar (just 0.4 grams per 100-gram portion).

Spinach is high in fiber.

Small bowl of baby spinach leaves.
Unsplash

The majority of the carbohydrates in spinach are fiber, which aids digestion, increases satiety, and supports your healthy gut bacteria. There are 2.2 grams of fiber in a 23-calorie serving of spinach (100 grams).

Spinach contains important vitamins.

Spinach is rich in vitamins A, C, and K1. For example, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a 100-gram serving of spinach provides over one-third of the daily value of vitamin C, an impressive 2,813 International Units (IU) of vitamin A, and over half your daily value of vitamin K1. Spinach also contains some vitamin E, vitamin B1, and vitamin B6.

Spinach is packed with essential minerals.

Spinach is rich in minerals like iron, calcium, folic acid, magnesium, and potassium.

Health Benefits of Spinach

Green smoothie with spinach.
Unsplash

The excellent nutritional content of spinach confers numerous health benefits to this superfood, such as the following:

Spinach can lower blood glucose levels.

One of the benefits of spinach is that it can reduce blood glucose levels and increase insulin sensitivity due to an antioxidant it contains called alpha-lipoic acid. For those with diabetes or insulin resistance, spinach has been shown to reduce the risk of oxidative damage that normally results from chronic insulin resistance.

Spinach can reduce the risk of cancer.

The green pigment in spinach, called chlorophyll, has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer. It also contains compounds known as MGDG and SQDG, which can inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.

Spinach can reduce blood pressure.

Fresh baby spinach leaves.
Unsplash

Spinach is high in potassium and magnesium as well as nitrates, both of which can reduce blood pressure. Potassium helps regulate fluid levels and counteract the effects of sodium, while nitrates help dilate blood vessels to reduce vascular resistance and increase blood flow.

Spinach can promote healthy digestion.

Spinach is high in dietary fiber as well as prebiotics, the type of fiber the beneficial gut bacteria thrive off of. Fiber promotes bowel regularity and can help you feel full.

Spinach improves eye health.

Spinach is rich in vitamin A, a fat-soluble vitamin that supports vision and eye health.

Spinach is good for your hair and skin.

Spinach is high in vitamins A and C, both of which support healthy skin and hair. Vitamin A plays an integral role in the regulation of oil glands in your pores and scalp, and diets high in vitamin A are linked to a lower incidence of acne and inflammatory skin conditions. Vitamin C supports collagen production and cell turnover for vibrant skin.

Spinach improves bone health.

Spinach is packed with bone-building nutrients like calcium and vitamin K1.

Spinach reduces inflammation.

Spinach is loaded with antioxidants and polyphenols, so it acts as an effective anti-inflammatory in the body. As chronic inflammation can lead to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, certain cancers, and obesity, a diet high in anti-inflammatory foods can reduce your risk of disease.

Practical Benefits of Spinach

Spinach salad with nuts.
Unsplash

As briefly touched upon, in addition to the health benefits of spinach, it’s also easy to use, versatile, relatively inexpensive, and mild in flavor. You can buy it fresh, frozen, or canned, and can put it in savory or sweet dishes (yes, even in brownies or chocolate protein shakes!).

Editors' Recommendations

Amber Sayer
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Amber Sayer is a fitness, nutrition, and wellness writer and editor, and was previously a Fitness Editor at Byrdie. She…
How to stop sugar cravings from derailing your diet (and your health)
Why do we crave sugar so much, and what can we do to stop those cravings in their tracks?
Apple cider donuts with sugar

We all know that sugar is unhealthy, and diets high in simple sugars are associated with an increased risk of certain lifestyle diseases such as obesity, insulin resistance, and type two diabetes. Sugar is pervasive in most processed foods, so unless you’re only eating natural foods, you’re probably consuming quite a bit of sugar in all of its various forms.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average person in the United States consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day, yet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025 recommends limiting the intake of added sugars to less than 10% of your total daily calories. For a 2,000-calorie diet, this would entail eating no more than 200 calories from added sugars, which is equal to about 12 teaspoons.
Many people struggle to reduce their sugar intake because they experience intense sugar cravings and turn to sweet foods to give them an energy boost or emotional pick-me-up. Fighting your sugar cravings can be difficult, particularly when you're stressed, tired, overworked, or feeling down. To learn more about how sugar cravings work and to get tips on how to reduce sugar cravings, we spoke with Brenda Peralta, RD, a registered dietitian, health coach, and sports nutritionist. 

Why do you have sugar cravings?
If you crave your afternoon soda, struggle to stop at just one piece of chocolate, or even get a headache or feel irritable if you don’t eat something sweet in the morning, you’re not alone. Not only are sugar cravings common, but this compulsion to eat sugar is indeed real and physiologically motivated. "So why do I crave sugar?" you might be asking yourself. Turns out that the answer is kind of complicated.
Studies show that sugar is an addictive substance, eliciting even more of a potent response in the reward centers of the brain than drugs like cocaine. Although these reward systems serve a biological survival role, they also can contribute to the addictiveness of a behavior, motivating you to seek out sweet food.
Every type of food activates the reward centers of the brain to some degree; otherwise, the species would not be motivated to seek more food, and our survival would be at risk. According to research studies, sweet foods are especially triggering because they elicit a more dramatic increase in dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, and endogenous opioids, which are natural pain relievers that also add to feelings of a natural high or pleasure. These chemicals cause an emotional rush that can trigger future sugar cravings in order to replicate the feeling.
Finally, as with substances like caffeine and alcohol, evidence suggests that the brain can develop a tolerance to sugar, requiring you to eat even more sugar to replicate the same level of emotional pleasure. 
Peralta says craving sweets typically result from unstable sugar levels. After eating something high in simple carbohydrates, such as pastries, cookies, and refined grains, your blood glucose (sugar) level rises dramatically and quickly, causing the pancreas to secrete insulin to help your cells take up and use the glucose.
“Insulin is so efficient that it decreases the sugar response very quickly. It can even decrease it too much — this is often called a sugar crash,” she explains. “Due to this energy crash, your body now needs immediate energy, and what can provide you fast energy? Simple carbs. Now it is a vicious cycle of energy and cravings.”

Read more
These Are the Top 5 Foods High in Niacin You Should Be Eating
Steak, chicken and pork.

Consuming a well-rounded diet is a great way to ensure you make the most out of your nutrition. This helps you cover all of your macros as well as your micros. Still, even with a balanced meal plan, there are times when you could be missing out on certain nutrients. One of those key nutrients that you want to make sure you are making the most of is niacin, by consuming foods high in niacin.

Niacin, or vitamin B3, is a crucial vitamin that plays a number of roles in our overall health. For starters, niacin can help us maintain healthy levels of cholesterol. Cholesterol plays a vital role in heart health and making sure you consume niacin in your diet can help regulate those numbers.

Read more
5 Possible Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar

For as long as men and women have roamed Mother Earth, there has been a driving desire to find elixirs, potions, concoctions, tinctures, or tonics to help heal the ails of humankind. While a good number of these have been proven to be no more than perfectly executed marketing of snake oils, there are handfuls of substances that have been around for centuries that actually have plenty of health benefits.

One such substance that has been around for thousands of years just so happens to be a common household item nowadays — apple cider vinegar. This type of vinegar traces back to the time of Hippocrates, with its origins dating centuries before that. If the "Father of Medicine" knew there were health benefits to consuming apple cider vinegar, then it's probably a good idea that you should, too. 

Read more