According to Healthy Eats newsletter, today is National Spinach Day! I'm glad somebody's taken initiative to spread awareness. Spinach is one of Mother Nature's super-duper foods. I personally eat spinach every single day, and I think you should too. Not only is it delicious a multitude of ways, I believe it has been sent from the fitness gods. Remember Popeye? There you have it. In addition to fueling and healing your internal organs, skin, eyes, teeth, muscles and brain, spinach can be easily included in your breakfast, lunch, dinner AND snacks! You basically have no excuses when it comes to not eating spinach. Like eggs? Toss it in a veggie omelet for breakfast. Like sandwiches (who doesn't...)? Instead of iceberg lettuce, wedge it between your other fave ingredients and toast it for a delicious panini at lunch. This can also be done ahead of time (read: the night before) for those of you strapped for actual lunchtime. For snack, include a handful in any kind of smoothie- I promise you won't even taste it! And at dinner, saute with garlic and sesame oil and serve under a sesame-crusted salmon fillet. Or, layer it into your lasagna or eggplant parmesan. As always, though, a simple spinach salad works just as well/easily. I've included my go-to spinach salad recipe at the end of this post. But for now, here are some more reasons from trusted sources on why you should get your hands on this leafy green gem:

Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., has named spinach one of her top 12 Super Mood Foods. She says that leafy greens, like spinach, are the very best sources of the B vitamin folate (otherwise known as folic acid). Poor intake of folate increases the risk for depression, fatigue, poor memory, and possibly schizophrenia [birth defects for your unborn child too, as I've read elsewhere]. What's more, people who are clinically depressed only respond to antidepressants if their blood levels of folate are high (What?!). She also says that just one serving of dark leafy greens supplies an entire day's requirement for vitamin A, more than 3 milligrams of iron, almost 1/3 your daily need for folate, and lots of calcium and other B vitamins. This is all for about 20 calories (WHAT?!). Oh, one more thing: leafy greens contain a lot of magnesium, which can curb symptoms of PMS. Awesome. Thanks, Elizabeth.

Next up: Stephanie Tourles, raw food guru extraordinaire. Her take on spinach is this: Spinach is loaded with antioxidants such as lutein, beta-carotene, several anti-inflammatory flavonoids, vitamin C and K, folic acid, iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. She likes to mince it up and add it to vegetable dips. Yum!

So, if you haven't jumped out of your seat by this point to buy yourself some spinach, I don't know what your problem is. If you're sticking around to hear what else I have to say, I'll entertain you. But promise you'll go to the store as soon as I'm done.

As I'm researching all these spinach facts this morning, I've come up with some thoughts. Let's go back to the birth defect thing. We've all heard that pregnant women are supposed to take a prenatal vitamin with lots of folic acid, right? Maybe you've been there yourself and have had this advice given to you. Regardless, I'm starting to wonder why we as a culture place so much value on supplements. Is it out of laziness? Do we think to ourselves, Oh, no need to drink my milk today, I took a calcium pill...? Is it because we crave a sense of security? We'd rather overdose on vitamins than underdose? (That's definitely not a real word, but I don't care.) Well, I've got some news for you. It is entirely possible to get all the nutrients you need from food alone. In fact, overdosing on certain vitamins and minerals, especially some of the B vitamins, can become toxic and detrimental to your health. Yes, something we believe is good for us can actually become bad for us. But this little philosophy is not new to you- you already know that too much of anything can become a bad thing (you thought it only applied to molten chocolate cake!). So here is my non-certified-but-heavily-supplemented-by-research-and-reading opinion: PROCEED WITH CAUTION. I'm certainly not going to tell you to not take a multivitamin, because that would be hypocritical. But if we all did a little research of our own, we may discover that other rich sources of B vitamins include beans/legumes (like chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts), yogurt and milk products, whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, barley), and wheat germ. We may discover that we don't have to depend quite as heavily on nutritional supplements if we can include more of these foods in our daily diets. This applies to any nutrient you'd like to get more of or think you're deficient in. My favorite formula: Awareness + Action = Awesomely Healthy. Be aware. Act accordingly. Improve your health.

I said earlier that I'd include a recipe in this post to give you a way to use the spinach you just bought. Here's my absolute favorite way to do spinach:
Toss it raw with toasted pecans, roasted red bell peppers, halved cherry tomatoes, avaocado, goat cheese, and basil. Drizzle with a simple dressing of olive oil, balsamic and/or red wine vinegar, black pepper, raw garlic, and a little dijon mustard. Delish!


Now, EAT YOUR SPINACH. Or else.