FRESH SPINACH

Spinach is among the most cultivated leafy vegetables in the world; it is an annual, or rarely biennial, herbaceous plant belonging to the amaranthacee family. It produces small tufts of leaves arranged in a basal rosette, dark green in colour, triangular in shape, with a fleshy stem and a smooth or blistered surface, depending on the species; when the climate becomes dry or the days are very long, the plant tends to develop an erect stem, on which some small yellow or green flowers develop.

By eating spinach you become as strong as Popeye, they told us when we were children. The well-known cartoon and comic character needed only to open a box and throw it down to acquire superhuman strength. Popeye, who made the fortune of spinach farmers, was born from the pencil of the American cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar, in 1919. The name "spinach" derives from the Persian aspanahk, which means "crossed with the thorn".

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Spinach contains iron, but the belief that it provides a high quantity to the body is wrong. To facilitate the absorption of this mineral it is advisable to consume spinach seasoned with lemon; the vitamin C contained in the citrus fruit helps, in fact, to absorb iron. Spinach is rich in vitamin A and folic acid. They are also rich in nitrate, a substance that has been the subject of recent research as it appears to help increase muscle strength. They also contain lutein, useful for the health of the retina and therefore the eyes. They are effective in case of constipation.