Spinach for athletes – power up Popeye !

You must know that spinach is a food for anybody. Some gurus can tell you that it has oxalic acids and can cause kidney stones. Others will warn you about the fibre and other negative aspects. No, do not worry. You will not eat as much, that can damage you on any ways. They just try to sell you moringa, spirulina or a super green meal replacement powder to make money. They are not bad, but not necessary. You can actually get a lot of vitamins, minerals, a wide variety of amino acids attached to plant chemicals and much more nearly for free. Spinach is cheap. Also apparently humans do a photosynthesis like detoxifying purification of the blood in the presence of chlorophyll when out on the sun and this ability is increased when consumed greens of course. Mystical !

However, you do not need to believe about black magic to just feel ! Feel that you need greens. I used to be a vegan for almost 7 years. I understood at that time, that if I went for more than 3 days with no greens, one facet of my well being was off. Actually I have been eating some little meat fish and eggs for 6 years now, but I still go out of my ways to not to forget my daily greens. I found a local shop where I can get organic greens up to 10pm in the evening. I often work till late, but I go for a 10minute jog at 21:45 just to obtain some greens and to finish my day with a salad.

What negatives I experience ? Definitely low motivation and a different mental state. That is a biggy for me. Also the digestion of other foods change. Even if I had just a little shot of green juice a day, my digestion is better. However if I ate a bunch of greens at every meal, what can be a full on salad with a head of lettuce or only a handful of chopped dilles in fermented almond yogurt, my digestive system is very awesome.

I also recommend to vary the type of spinach. Winter time it is easier to get shoots and baby leafs. Summer time those giant chard like spinach leafs are often available with that light purple color shade on the bottom of the stems. Sometimes I find this spike like narrow long leaf spinach. That is great too. Here are some ideas:

Pre race breakfast:

• 1 square of sugar free 99% dark chocolate
• A little piece of ginger
• Honey mixed with curcuma
• 2 to 4 medjool dates
• 4 leaves of spinach

Post workout protein smoothie :

• 200g of spinach
• 5 ripe bananas
• Pinch of ginger powder
• Pinch of cinnamon powder
• 1tbsp of lin seeds
• Almond, Soy, Oat or any other milk
• 1/8th of an avocado
• Little pinch of salt
• Modify as you like

Pesto made in the s-blade food procesor

• Get a lot of spinach, but can add other type of bitter greens
• A piece of hard cheese like parmesan or pecorino, but can be tofu too
• Olive oil
• Raw garlic
• Any kind of nuts: pine, cashew, almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts
• Salt and pepper
• I like to add some acidity from vinegar, lemon juice or simply capers, olives or gherkins