Golden Spinach and Sweet Potato Healthy Saute - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe

Today's Recipe If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
Enjoy the combination of spices that gives this spinach and sweet potato dish a unique flavor. Spinach is one of the most nutrient-rich vegetables around and the sweet potatoes add fiber and an extra dose of health-promoting carotenoids to this dish. Enjoy!

Golden Spinach and Sweet Potato Healthy Sauté
Prep and Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup + 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 6 oz frozen spinach, thawed
• 2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Chop onions and mince garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to bring out their health-promoting benefits.
2. Heat 1 TBS broth in a large stainless steel skillet. Healthy Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute.
3. Add seasonings and lemon juice and stir to mix thoroughly. Add broth and sweet potatoes. Simmer covered over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover to allow sauce to thicken and cook another couple minutes.
4. Press water out of spinach and add to sweet potatoes. Cook uncovered for a 3-4 more minutes to allow sauce to thicken. Add cilantro, salt, and pepper.

Serves 4

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Healthy Food Tip

The Latest News About Spinach

We all know that Popeye made himself super strong by eating spinach, but you may be surprised to learn that he may also have been helping to protect himself against inflammatory problems, oxidative stress-related problems, cardiovascular problems, and bone problems at the same time. Spinach is easy to prepare and only takes a minute to cook. Sweet-tasting baby spinach is a great addition to salads.

What's New and Beneficial About Spinach

• Bright, vibrant-looking spinach leaves are not only more appealing to the eye but more nourishing as well. Recent research has shown that spinach leaves that look fully alive and vital have greater concentrations of vitamin C than spinach leaves that are pale in color. The study authors suggest that the greater supply of vitamin C helps protect all of the oxygen-sensitive phytonutrients in the spinach leaves and makes them looking vibrant and alive.
• Many people are concerned about the nutrient content of delicate vegetables (like baby spinach) when those vegetables are placed in clear plastic containers in grocery store display cases and continuously exposed to artificial lighting. One recent food study has shown that you don't need to worry about the overall status of antioxidants in baby spinach that has been stored and displayed in this way. In this scientific study, the overall nutrient richness of the baby spinach when exposed to constant light was actually higher than the overall nutrient richness of baby spinach leaves kept in total darkness. The period of time in the study was 9 days, and the spinach was kept at 39°F/4°C (a temperature on the lower end of the scale for most home refrigerators). These findings are good news for anyone purchasing baby spinach in "ready-to-eat" containers.
• One new category of health-supportive nutrients found in spinach is called "glycoglycerolipids." Glycoclycerolipids are the main fat-related molecules in the membranes of light-sensitive organs in most plants. They're indispensable for the process of photosynthesis carried out by plants. However, recent lab research in laboratory animals has shown that glycoglycerolipids from spinach can help protect the lining of the digestive tract from damageâ€"especially damage related to unwanted inflammation. You can expect to see more studies about this exciting new category of molecules in spinach and its potential health benefits.
• In a recent study on the relationship between risk of prostate cancer and vegetable intake - including the vegetables spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, turnip greens, collards, and kale - only spinach showed evidence of significant protection against the occurrence of aggressive prostate cancer. ("Aggressive prostate cancer" was defined as stage III or IV prostate cancer with a Gleason score of at least 7. Gleason scores are based on lab studies of prostate tissue and common tumor-related patterns.) The study authors did not speculate about specific substances in spinach that may have been involved in decreased prostate cancer risk. However, we know that certain unique anti-cancer carotenoids — called epoxyxanthophylls — are plentiful in spinach, even though they may not be as effectively absorbed as other carotenoids like beta-carotene and lutein. You can count on seeing future research on neoxanthin and violaxanthin & mdash; two anti-cancer epoxyxanthophylls that are found in plentiful amounts in the leaves of spinach.

WHFoods Recommendations

Foods belonging to the chenopod family — including spinach, chard, beets, and quinoa — continue to show an increasing number of health benefits not readily available from other food families. The special connection between their overall phytonutrients and our nervous system health (including our specialized nervous system organs like the eye) point to the chenopod family of foods as unique in their health value. While we have yet to see large-scale human studies that point to a recommended minimum intake level for foods from this botanical family, we have seen data on chenopod phytonutrients, and based on this data, we recommend that you include foods from the chenopod family in your diet 1-2 times per week. In the case of a leafy food like spinach, we recommend a serving size of at least 1/2 cup, and even more beneficial, at least one full cup.
Spinach is one of only three vegetables that we recommend boiling to help reduce its concentration of oxalic acid. We recommend boiling for just 1 minute to minimize loss of nutrients and flavor. For more on the Healthiest Way of Cooking Spinach, see the 1-Minute Spinach.

Health Benefits

Spinach provide numerous health benefits including:

• Anti-inflammatory benefits
• Antioxidant properties
• Bone health support

For more details on spinach's health benefits, see this section of our spinach write-up.

Nutritional Profile

Spinach is an excellent source of bone-healthy vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, and calcium; heart-healthy folate, potassium, and vitamin B6; energy-producing iron and vitamin B2; and free radical-scavenging vitamin A (through its concentration of beta-carotene) and vitamin C. It is a very good source of digestion-supportive dietary fiber, muscle-building protein, energy-producing phosphorus, and the antioxidants copper, zinc and vitamin E. In addition, it is a good source of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, and heart-healthy niacin and selenium.
While this mixture of conventional nutrients gives spinach a unique status in the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory department, it is the unusual mixture of phytonutrients in spinach that "seals the deal" in terms of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components. In terms of flavonoids, spinach is a unique source of methylenedioxyflavonol glucuronides, and in terms of carotenoids, its difficult to find a more helpful source of lutein and zeaxanthin. The epoxyxanthophyll carotenoids neoxanthin and violaxanthin are also welcomed constituents of spinach leaves.
For more on this nutrient-rich vegetable, including references related to this Latest News, see our write-up on spinach.