Spinach is a good vegetable. It is possible to prepare a snack cake or Italian Rotolo, to make a salad, sauce, or add it to the soup. Spinach adds a sweet taste, freshness, and rich green color.
However, according to scientists, not all recipes with spinach are able to generously share their useful properties. The fact is that boiling or frying of this leafy vegetable destroys its antioxidants.
During the tests, researchers from Linkoping University in Sweden evaluated the various methods of cooking spinach purchased at the supermarket to see how varied nutritional value. For the scientist, it was important to monitor the level of lutein, which helps to reduce the risk of heart attacks and prevent eye damage.
“We do not advise to heat the spinach, says study author Ann Chang. – Much more useful would be to make a cocktail with the addition of fatty dairy products such as cream, milk or yogurt.”
By measuring the level of lutein in each method of cooking, experts came to the conclusion that the spinach leaves are best to slice and eat raw along with dairy products.
Thus, the most useful way of cooking spinach is to mix it raw with yogurt or milk.
The connection of spinach with fatty dairy products is good due to the fact that when cutting the spinach from the leaves it produces a large amount of lutein and fat increases the solubility of lutein in liquid.
More about spinach health benefits and harms read in our big article.