There’s a new study talking about using spinach as a dietary supplement to cut hunger and increase fullness. When I first saw the headline, “could spinach help with weight loss”, I thought um, yes, duh, and why the heck is that news.

The deal is they discovered a spinach-derived supplement called Appethyl that they suggest is responsible for increasing satiety, or helping you feel full longer, and reducing cravings for salt. They suggest Appethyl is active at the time it is eaten, whereas when you eat spinach, it must be fully digested before your body detects the sensation of fullness, which is long after the hunger trigger has passed.

Participants in the study were given the spinach extract before they ate lunch. Then the researchers basically looked at whether or not people were hungry beginning at 30 minutes up to 2 hours after eating about a 750-calorie lunch (which if dinner is your largest meal, 750 calories is pretty high for lunch). I don’t tend to recommend counting calories, but numerically, that’s high for lunch unless lunch is your largest meal. They then gave them as much pizza as they wanted for dinner 4 hours later….Go figure….

In short, the results show that people who had the spinach extract were fuller longer than those people who did not.

I’ll post the link at the end of the blog if you’d like to read the full study. For me, after reading this study, I’m not sure you need the spinach extract for that though. They didn’t serve them the healthiest meal options. I would have been more interested in comparing the extract with a bad meal to eating a healthy meal that included spinach instead.

One thing is clear though, you do need good quality, organic spinach.  Here’s why:

Federal data from the most recent pesticide analysis indicates that conventionally grown spinach has more pesticide residue than all other products tested. And to make matters worse, three-fourths of the samples tested positive for a neurotoxic bug killer that is banned in Europe.

More specifically, the data detected an average of 7.1 pesticides on conventionally grown spinach (the max was a whopping 18 pesticides in a single sample). Among the average were four pesticides, one insecticide, and three fungicides, that were responsible for the bulk of the residues detected on spinach. Yuck!

Permethrin, a neurotoxic insecticide and a treatment for lice and scabies, was also found in 76% of the samples. At high doses, permethrin can overwhelm the nervous system and cause tremors and seizures. It has been banned from use as a pesticide on food crops in Europe since 2000.

Even worse, several of the samples in the last data analysis had residues that are actually banned from use on spinach altogether, with 40% including DDT, a pesticide that has long since been banned in the United States. Even though DDT was banned in the 1970s, its residue is still present in our soil.

Another reason why I advise that eating a healthy diet today is not like it used to be. You do not get the same nutrients from the soil.

But back to spinach….

Because of all this, spinach is now second on the Dirty Dozen™ list of fruits and vegetables. It used to be number 8…

Here’s what you can do:

So I agree with the study, yes, spinach can help you curb cravings and feel fuller longer. There is a ton of fiber in spinach (increased fiber intake has been directly tied to weight loss) and spinach is a great source of vitamins A, C, and E, folate, and potassium.

For the love of all things healthy, buy organic spinach please! And buy other leafy greens, like kale, organic too. Kale hasn’t been tested since 2008, so there are likely pesticides looming there as well.

Wash thoroughly! Although pesticides have also been found in canned or frozen spinach, which suggests that washing and cooking spinach does not eliminate them. So washing reduces the concentration of pesticides, not the presence of…

So maybe after reading this, you might be thinking I’d rather take the extract than eat pesticide-riddled spinach. The supplement is derived from spinach and if they plan to use high-quality, organic spinach, you will definitely see that in the price of this stuff.

Link to study:
Acute Effects of Spinach Extract Study

Talk soon,