Broccoli vs Spinach - Health impact and Nutrition Comparison

Introduction

Healthy lifestyle is what we all strive for, but few of us manage to keep it because of tense timetable and other factors. But there is one worldwide known truth, you are what you eat. So let’s compare two great vegetables and see what health benefits we can absorb from them. Being the leading member of cruciferous family, broccoli is the well-known food of ancient Romans. This amazingly useful vegetable can be used in cooked, steamed, microwaved and raw form. In raw form it is often added to smoothies and salads and there is a widespread idea that it is much healthier steamed than cooked. All types of this vegetable belong to the Brassica genus of plants. What refers to color, you can meet this vegetable from deep sage to dark green and purplish green. Its sprouts are used worldwide and there are no concerns in regard to their tolerance and safety for human body. The other useful green is spinach. We can speak about its health benefits for hours and there will still be more to add. This leafy green is also consumed in cooked and raw form. The area of its usage is wide and you can use your culinary imagination to make the most of it. Generally, it is a wonderful season crop and extremely sensitive to excessive heat. It also grows very quickly and forms flowers and seeds fast. It is considered one of the healthiest greens on earth thanks to various types of flavonoid antioxidants present in spinach. It is a perfect nutrient-dense food if we put together its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. When choosing spinach pay attention to its leaves, as there shouldn’t be any sighs of yellowing. It should look fresh and tender instead of being bruised and wilted. Besides, when choosing leafy greens, keep in mind that dark ones are rich in chlorophylls and are irreplaceable for skin, hair and bone health as they provide protein, iron, a lot of vitamins and minerals.

Nutritional Content Comparison

Broccoli is a perfect source of vitamin C and its amount its amount is radically high compared to spinach (almost 3 times more per 300grams). From the other hand, the latter contains 4 times more vitamin K than the first one. Moreover, broccoli is a good source of zinc, calcium, selenium, pantothenic acid, chromium, folate, vitamin E, vitamin B1 and so on. Furthermore, from the standpoint of calories per 100gr, the first one is higher in calories than the second one (the ratio is 34/23). With the amount of proteins these two greens are almost equal (2.82/2.86 in 100gr), whereas broccoli contains two times more carbohydrates than the other green. In general, spinach contains significantly high amounts of vitamins and minerals. What refers to minerals, it’s a great source of iron and contains 3 times more iron than the other one per 300grams. Spinach is also nutritionally rich green and contains considerable amount of manganese, magnesium, potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, lutein, protein, choline, etc.

Health Impact

Broccoli sprouts are used worldwide and there have never been any concerns regarding its tolerance and safety for human body and this study is a mere proof of it. According another study this vegetable is enjoyed by kids when it is properly cooked instead of being soft and mushy, as because of excessive heat it loses flavor and useful nutrients. That’s why the preferable cooking method for it is steaming. We would not invent a bicycle if we state that over 300 research studies on broccoli are there to prove that it is able to decrease the risk of several types of cancer and its effectiveness to three metabolic issues like chronic inflammation, oxidative stress and inadequate detoxification is a fact. There is an essential understanding due to the research made during recent decade that the risk of cancer in various organ systems in our body is mainly related to the combination of these three problems. Another interesting study has been carried out on rats stating that broccoli is able to prevent several types of cancer due to the high amount of selenium. The vegetable used for this experiment was grown in special conditions and contained considerable high amount of selenium (approximately a few times more, than you can find in common ones sold in the grocery store). This super vegetable has other health benefits as well, that we will list below:

• Cancer prevention
• Anti-inflammatory benefits
• Detoxification improvement
• Digestive support
• Cardiovascular support

A recent research states that the dark green color of spinach is a sign of high level of chlorophyll and health promoting carotenoids like lutein, beta carotene and zeaxanthin. They have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerous features and are perfect for healthy eye-sight, as they help to prevent macular degeneration and cataracts. Scientists have recently carried out an interesting experiment and have used spinach to receive working human heart muscle. It is one step forward in medication as it will be possible to solve a long-lasting problem related to repairing damaged organs. It will give a chance to grow a vascular system being a roadblock for tissue engineering. Let’s see what other health benefits we can have eating spinach:

• Asthma prevention
• Lowering blood pressure
• Bone health
• Healthy skin and hair
• Diabetes management
• Cancer prevention

SUMMARY

By summarizing, we should add that both greens contain many nutrients responsible for preventing cancer risk and other health problems like inflammation, cardio-vascular issues, digestive problems, diabetes, asthma and so on. But it should be mentioned that spinach contains critically high amounts of vitamins and minerals than broccoli (the ratio is 1/7). Nevertheless, spinach is a great source of vitamin K, A and C, and the amounts of iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium are almost 2-3 times more than in broccoli. Nevertheless, the latter is advisable for athletes and kids due to its high nutritional values, as it contains more calories than the other one. Although both of them are sensitive to temperature and you will lose all necessary nutrients when overcooking them.

References