Spinach

Spinacia oleracea · Amaranth family (Amaranthaceae)

Hi, I'm Spinach! My leaves are soft and green, and I shrink like magic when I'm cooked!

Spinach
Image: Nillerdk · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What does it help with?

  • Vitamins & good food

    Spinach gives you vitamin A for your eyes, vitamin K for your bones, and folate for growing.

    🟢 Scientists are sure

What do the colored dots mean?
  • 🟢 Scientists are sure Strong evidence (several good human trials)
  • 🟡 Scientists think so Some evidence (small human studies)
  • 🟠 Still being studied Early evidence (lab or animal studies only)
  • 🔵 Grandma's wisdom Traditional use (not scientifically confirmed)

How we grade evidence

Careful if…

For kids OK in normal food Pills, powders & oils: ask a grown-up first

Spinach is great for kids — try it in omelettes, soups or green pancakes. For babies, serve it freshly cooked, once a day at most.

  • Blood-thinning medicines

    ⚠️ Ask a doctor first

    People who take a blood-thinning medicine called warfarin should eat about the same amount of greens each week.

  • Kidney problems or stones

    ⚠️ Ask a doctor first

    People who get some kinds of kidney stones may need to eat less spinach.

  • Babies & young kids

    ⚠️ Ask a doctor first

    Babies should not have spinach more than once a day, or when they have a tummy bug. Cooked spinach should be eaten fresh.

Natural does not always mean safe. Always ask a grown-up before trying something new, and a doctor or pharmacist before taking any supplement. Try the safety check →

What is it?

Spinach is a leafy green plant. We eat its soft, dark green leaves, raw in salads or cooked.

Spinach grows fast in cool weather. A big bag of fresh leaves cooks down to just a small bowl!

How people use it

In the kitchen

  • Eaten raw in salads, or cooked in omelettes, soups and pies.
  • Cooked with garlic, olive oil and spices.

Traditional uses

🔵 Grandma's wisdom — not proven by science

  • Spinach pies and pastries are loved all around the Mediterranean.

Fun facts

  1. Popeye the Sailor ate spinach to get super strong!

  2. Spinach has iron A mineral that helps your blood carry air (oxygen) around your body., but your body takes in only a little of it.

  3. Spinach probably first grew in ancient Persia, today's Iran.

  4. Cooked spinach shrinks to a tiny pile because its leaves are mostly water.

Grow it yourself

  • Easy
  • Some sun
  • Regular water
  • Grows in a pot
  • About 6 weeks after sowing
  1. Sow spinach seeds in autumn or early spring, when it's cool.
  2. Cover them with a little soil and water gently.
  3. Keep the soil damp, and move the pot to light shade when it gets hot.
  4. Pick the outside leaves first. The middle keeps growing!

💡 Hot weather makes spinach grow a tall flower stem and taste bitter.

Quiz time!

Answer 3 questions. Get 2 right to win this plant’s badge for your garden!

  1. What happens to spinach when you cook it?

  2. Which cartoon sailor loved spinach?

  3. Which vitamin is spinach super rich in?

Your plant card

Print it, cut it out and collect them all!

Spinach

Spinacia oleracea

Superpowers
Vitamins & good food
Careful
Blood-thinning medicines, Kidney problems or stones
Growing
⭐

🤩 Popeye the Sailor ate spinach to get super strong!

supplementsmorocco.com

For grown-ups: science, amounts & safety

Tap to open

General information, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before using any herbal supplement — especially during pregnancy or breastfeeding, for children, before surgery, or if you take medicines. Medical disclaimer

What the research says

Use Evidence Details
Vitamins & good food 🟢 Strong evidence (several good human trials) Per 100 g, raw spinach provides only 23 kcal but 469 µg vitamin A (RAE), 483 µg vitamin K, 194 µg folate, 2.7 mg iron and 558 mg potassium[1].

Who should be careful & interactions

  • ⚠️ Ask a doctor first Blood-thinning medicines: Vitamin K affects how warfarin works: people taking warfarin should eat consistent amounts of vitamin K-rich foods week to week, avoid large amounts of leafy green vegetables, and talk to their doctor before changing their diet[2]. Spinach is very high in vitamin K[1].
  • ⚠️ Ask a doctor first Kidney problems or stones: People who have had calcium oxalate kidney stones may be advised to avoid high-oxalate foods such as spinach, nuts, rhubarb and wheat bran[3].
  • ⚠️ Ask a doctor first Babies & young kids: Spinach can be high in nitrate. EFSA found that a risk for some infants eating more than one spinach meal a day cannot be excluded, that poor storage of cooked vegetables can turn nitrate into nitrite (raising the risk of methaemoglobinaemia), and recommended against feeding spinach to infants and children with bacterial gut infections[4].

Nutrition (per 100 g of raw spinach (about 3 cups of leaves))[1]

Energy 23 kcal
Protein 2.9 g
Carbohydrates 3.6 g
Fiber 2.2 g
Vitamin A 469 µg
Vitamin C 28.1 mg
Vitamin K 482.9 µg
Folate 194 µg
Iron 2.7 mg
Calcium 99 mg
Magnesium 79 mg
Potassium 558 mg

Names & identifiers

Scientific name
Spinacia oleracea
Also called
Spinach leaves
Wikidata
Q81464

Sources

  1. Spinach, raw (FDC ID 168462) USDA FoodData Central · Database
  2. Warfarin MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine (NIH) · Guideline
  3. Eating, Diet, & Nutrition for Kidney Stones National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH · Guideline
  4. Statement on possible public health risks for infants and young children from the presence of nitrates in leafy vegetables EFSA Journal (EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain) · 2010 · Guideline

✅ Reviewed by sm_owner on September 26, 2026.

Last updated September 26, 2026. How we write and check our pages

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