Taste: Spinach smoothies provide a significant amount of vegetable-based nutrition in a pleasant-tasting drink. Many people find it difficult to eat enough vegetables for proper nutrition because of their bitter taste, a problem they may not outgrow. The ability to taste bitter foods lies in genetic differences that originally conveyed the selective advantage of helping early humans avoid poisonous plants. Today, these same genes cause many individuals to avoid eating nutritious foods, such as spinach, because they taste bitter. Masking the bitter taste of spinach by adding more pleasant and sweet-tasting fruits such as mangos, oranges, blueberries and apples into a smoothie can override your natural aversion, allowing you to receive the nutritional benefits of otherwise unpleasant-tasting vegetables.

Cancer Prevention: Adding spinach to smoothies increases your intake of carotenoid compounds. Carotenoids from green leafy vegetables may decrease the risk of prostate cancer, according to a 2001 article in the Journal of Nutrition. Cartenoids not only induce prostate cancer cells to self-destruct, they also prevent their replication. Spinach also reduces the risk of ovarian, bladder, liver and lung cancer due to flavanoid, folate, tocopherol and chlorophyllin compounds.

Bone Health: One cup of fresh spinach leaves blended into a smoothie provides almost 200 percent of the daily recommended intake of vitamin K. Vitamin K prevents osteoclast activation, an activity that breaks down bones. At the same time, vitamin K stimulates osteocalcin activity, which anchors calcium molecules inside of bones. Spinach also provides two essential bone-building minerals: calcium and magnesium. It also contains other bone-building nutrients, including manganese, copper, zinc and phosphorus, all of which help strengthen bones and decrease the risk of osteoporosis.

Cardiovascular Health: Blending spinach into smoothies keeps your heart healthy. Spinach provides vitamin A and C, antioxidants that reduce cellular damage caused by free radicals in your body. These antioxidants prevent cholesterol from becoming oxidized, building up and sticking to your blood vessel walls, thereby decreasing your risk of heart attack or stroke. Factor C0-Q10, another antioxidant in spinach, strengthens muscles, especially your heart muscle, preventing and treating many cardiovascular diseases like hyperlipidemia, heart failure, hypertension and coronary heart diseases.

Spinach also contains folate and magnesium, high potassium levels and low sodium levels, all of which decrease your risk for high blood pressure and heart disease (see reference 1 and 3).

Raw Versus Cooked: Adding any citrus fruit to a smoothie containing raw spinach increases your body’s ability to absorb many of the beneficial nutrients in spinach, including iron. Raw spinach also contains higher proportions of vitamin C and the antioxidant gluathione than cooked spinach. While raw spinach contains a significant amount of oxalate, a substance that binds to calcium and prevents its absorption, the overall decrease in available calcium for healthy individuals is relatively small, and is taken into account in the determination of the daily recommended intake values for calcium.

1. Warm up for 10 or 20 minutes with cardio exercise before you begin to stretch. Stretching without warming up not only promotes injury, it also has very little benefit and will not help you to increase flexibility.
2. Practice your stretches first thing in the morning after warm up whenever possible. The early morning hours are when the muscles of the body are most receptive to change. Additionally, a stretch in the morning will help you to feel great all day long.
3. Use Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation or PNF, a simple technique which helps to trick muscles to increase flexibility gently. Reach into a stretch and hold for 6 to 8 seconds and then, without lifting out of the stretch, actively contract the muscle you are stretching. Hold the contraction for 2 to 4 seconds and then release.
4. Work within your physical limits, as it takes time and dedication to increase your flexibility. Recognize that some days you will be able to stretch further than others, so never push beyond pain, even if you stretched further yesterday. While some stretches may feel uncomfortable, when discomfort becomes painful, you are stretching too far and increasing your risk of injury.
5. Drink plenty of water and eat a healthy diet to keep your muscles free of excess toxins and help increase flexibility. Plenty of fruits and vegetables while reducing packaged foods, fats and sugars will show huge results when stretching. Additionally, adding more alkaline foods to your diet reduces acidity in the muscles and helps to relieve tension which in turn speeds improvement in flexibility.