Popeye was not wrong when he bragged about gaining muscle strength by eating spinach. According to an article published in the journal Cell Metabolism , the daily consumption of 300 grams of spinach reduces the amount of oxygen necessary for the functioning of the muscles when doing physical exercise, such as cycling. The secret is not in the iron but in its high content of nitrates , which make the mitochondria more efficient, in charge of supplying the cells with energy in the form of ATP. "It's like putting more fuel into the muscles," says study author Eddie Weitzberg of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
To reach this conclusion, the researcher gave a group of volunteers for several days pure nitrate supplements equivalent to a plate of 200 to 300 grams of spinach. At the beginning and end of the experiment, he had them pedal an exercise bike while measuring their oxygen consumption , which was reduced by as much as 5 percent compared to a control group that had taken a placebo. Now they plan a study of the long-term effects.
Weitzberg and his team recently showed that nitrates also lower blood pressure in healthy individuals. Other researchers have found that these substances, especially abundant in green leafy vegetables, prevent heart attacks and other heart problems.
