Popeye and mothers urge us to eat our greens such as spinach in order to grow strong. Health experts have long echoed this sentiment as studies show the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables, especially the green ones.
A new study published in the February issue of Cell Metabolism has emphasised that eating vegetables can make muscles more efficient. The researchers gave volunteers small doses of inorganic nitrate for 3 days and found that they consumed less oxygen when riding an exercise bike. Green vegetables such as spinach contain these nitrates which consequently means that this could provide some explanation for these health benefits.
However these nitrates have short term benefits, so more work is necessary in order to find and understand the longer term effect. This study shows merely how a belief and a habit introduced to us by our mothers and the cartoon figure Popeye has been now verified scientifically.
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