He wishes he could bave known this sooner..:-)
Posted on 10/26/2006 4:14:00 PM PDT by MadIvan
It was always Popeye's favourite. But for generations of British diners, spinach has never been a vegetable of choice - until now.
The influence of celebrity chefs and the continuing trend for healthy eating mean it is now a regular addition to our shopping lists.
Increasingly used as a summer salad leaf and in Italian and Indian cooking, sales of the leafy green have soared by up to 30 per cent in the last year according to Tesco.
Senior vegetable buyer for the supermarket Roy Maynard said: "For years, children have looked upon eating spinach as a form of torture after endlessly being told by their parents to eat their greens.
"Spinach got saddled with the unfair tag of being, with cabbage, the most unloved of all vegetables, despite the fact that it is one of the most beneficial foods you can eat.
"But in the last few years there has been a strong and growing move towards healthier eating. "Celebrity TV chefs have also helped boost sales by including spinach in recipes."
Spinach producer Emmett is meeting increased demand by planting faster-growing varieties.
A spokesman for the Nottinghamshire-based company said: "Traditionally the key demand would be during the first two weeks of January, as people began their New Year diets, but now we're seeing booming sales all year round and especially in the summer."
As well as endorsement from celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and TV health guru Dr Gillian Keith, the spinach boom has been fuelled by the vegetable's numerous health benefits revealed by scientists.
This week researchers claimed that eating three portions of greens a day can keep memory loss at bay.
Pensioners who hit the dietary target are as mentally alert as someone five years' younger, they said.
Vitamin E is believed to be the key to the benefit, and green, leafy vegetables, are an especially rich source.
Earlier this year a different study found that contrary to Popeye's experience, spinach may also hold the key to keeping slim.
Researchers found a compound in the leaves can fool our bodies into feeling full.
It slows down the digestion of fat, tricking our half-empty stomachs into believing they have eaten enough.
Added to fatty foods such as burgers, biscuits and pies, it could stop dieters from experiencing hunger pangs and might help combat obesity.
Spinach, which is rich in iron, is also packed with antioxidants which experts say can block the effects of free radicals - toxins produced by the body that damage cells and can lead to heart disease, cancer and strokes.
Studies suggest the lifelong accumulation of free radicals in the brain is linked to mental decline in old age and is also a probable factor in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
But children who still can't stomach the vegetable can turn to another study that claims some of us are born with an aversion to vegetables.
Studies have shown that having a taste for bitter vegetables is in our genes.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that those of us who love vegetables are born with tastebuds which find it hard to pick up bitter tastes, while others are naturally extra-sensitive to sharp tastes.
This must seem very odd to Americans given the contaminated spinach you've been enduring.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Until the wild pigs decided to spread "eau de ecoli" all over it.LOL!
Actually spinach is my favourite salad veggie. Mix it with some walnuts, blue cheese, salt, pepper and some good olive oil and pomegranate balsamic vinegar, you'll be in heaven, I assure you.
The Greeks use spinich and feta cheese........mmmmm, good.
Spinich with strawberries and lemon dressing.....delicious!
Spinach over lasangne...the best.
MMmm, that sounds good. I like spinich souflee too.
Spinach in the states has been THE vegetable for at least the last 20 years.
Tet's mom's "Wilted Spinach Salad"
Spinach, cleaned and stemmed.
Bacon, fry as much as you like, drain, crumble.
Heat bacon grease and 1/3 cup vinegar fairly hot.
Pour over spinach, tossing as you go,
add bacon bits.
Mnnnnnnmmmmmmmmmm.
Spinach and Spam...
"I'm a vegetarian..."
I was in England and Holland a couple of times, years ago. It seemed to me neither could prepare beef properly. Not steak, not hamburgers.
So maybe you need to come out west, and see if a good steak or burger might make a convert out of you.
In moderation, of course.
I eat mostly chicken. However American beef and pork are much more lean than a few decades back. Hence more healthy.
Wife eats little meat, some fish. She is a healthfood type, along with her traditional Italian dietary background.
She is trying to help me shed some inches, by substituting fruit for my morning buttered toast.
So far okay. But I doubt that i have the genetic predisposition to "like" my veggies.
**Freeper Kitchen Ping**
I yam what I yam!
You are a veg? Or one of those fake ones that eats fish and chicken?
When I make veggie soup I always throw a handful of fresh spinach in the bowl before I ladle in the soup. It just wilts the spinach and is lovely.
I also have a yummy angel hair pasta that has spinach, mushrooms, and a sauce with lemon, cream and garlic. MMMMMM, even my grandkids like it.
Excellent!
Hey, I have always loved spinach. But then I like boiled okra and calf liver as well.
Don't eat to much spinach. It contains oxalic acid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalic_acid
Too much can poison you. I'm not sure how much is too much, but I would be careful.
He wishes he could bave known this sooner..:-)
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