Urban life is tense and busy, and people often neglect their dietary requirements. In fact, from the first glass of water you drink in the morning, your daily diet has already begun. What nutrients do vegetables of different colors contain? How to reasonably combine meat and vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? To help you avoid discomfort or even diseases caused by dietary misconceptions, the editors of Life Expert have carefully gathered various health and nutrition information to tailor a healthy diet just for you!
Are spinach and tofu actually a perfect match?
Spinach and tofu cannot be eaten together — after decades of publicity, this has become an ironclad rule known to all.
However, according to recent research findings, it can be concluded that spinach and tofu are not just a good combination, but a perfect match for supplementing calcium and strengthening bones.
The previous belief that spinach and tofu should not be eaten together was based on only one reason: spinach contains a large amount of oxalic acid, which combines with calcium to form an insoluble precipitate.
However, this argument overlooks another aspect — spinach also contains multiple factors that promote calcium utilization and reduce calcium excretion, including abundant potassium and magnesium, as well as vitamin K.
Everyone knows that calcium is closely related to acid-base balance. When the intake of protein-rich foods is excessive, the acid-base balance is disrupted, and the body's calcium excretion increases. At this time, eating more green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, can fully provide potassium and magnesium to help maintain the acid-base balance, reduce calcium excretion, and is very beneficial for bone health.
100 grams of spinach contains 311 mg of potassium and 58 mg of magnesium, ranking among the top vegetables. This is 2.7 times the potassium content of a Fuji apple and 11.6 times the magnesium content. With the rich potassium and magnesium in spinach, the calcium in tofu can be better retained in the body.
More importantly, the vitamin K in spinach has a powerful effect in promoting bone calcium formation. Vitamin K has been a research hotspot in nutrition in recent years and is an essential component for the formation of "osteocalcin."
Vitamin K is mainly found in green leafy vegetables and vegetable oils, and spinach is one of the vegetables with the highest content, second only to kale, with a content of 415 micrograms/100 grams.
Survey data shows that for middle-aged and elderly women, a daily intake of vitamin K of more than 109 micrograms can reduce the risk of fractures by 30%. Studies have also shown that supplementing with 200 micrograms of vitamin K daily can help maintain and increase bone density. This means that eating less than 100 grams of spinach a day can achieve this effect.
Studies have shown that supplementing with vitamin K while increasing calcium can greatly enhance the effectiveness of calcium supplementation and promote calcium deposition into bones. Tofu, rich in calcium and protein, combined with spinach, rich in potassium, magnesium, and vitamin K, is the perfect match for supplementing calcium and strengthening bones.
What about the oxalic acid in spinach?
So, what about the oxalic acid in spinach? Since oxalic acid is highly soluble in water, blanching the spinach in boiling water for one minute and then removing it can remove more than 80% of the oxalic acid.
If you stir-fry the tofu first, then add the blanched spinach, and eat them together, there will be no problem.
Fortunately, vitamin K is not afraid of heat and is not water-soluble, so blanching the spinach will not cause its loss.
However, like carotene, vitamin K requires fat to aid absorption, so when making spinach and tofu soup, be sure to add some oil.