Re: How bad is spinach?

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Posted by jake on December 01, 2001 at 16:00:38:

In Reply to: How bad is spinach? posted by Pet Turtle on December 01, 2001 at 01:37:03:

it's a matter of degree. of the foods that have oxalic acid (and there are many) spinach is the worst. here's a brief sample of ppm for comparison:

pineapple 6 banana 6 grapefruit 0 rasberry 28 strawberry 20 gooseberry 50 melon 0
carrots 26 parsley 215 rhubarb (stalks) 500 spinach 860 tea leaves 1400 rhubarb (leaves) 4000 tomato 4 grapes 25 cabbage 9 lettuce (head-) 4

tea leaves (1400) are not normally eaten, and rhubarb leaves will kill you within 48 hours, so of the foods that are commonly eaten and not immediately deadly, spinach is the worst. there is little or no good reason to eat raw spinach, or to feed it to chelonia. there is such a wide variety of better choices (almost anything!) from which to choose, that spinach is not necessary. why bother with it? use collards, endive, red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, dandelion, plantainweed. all greens have some oxalic acid, but tend to be in the moderate range-- 20-50 ppm. even chard doesn't come close to spinach in this regard. turtle ppl often gripe about how bad iceberg lettuce is because it has very little actual nutrition, but it doesn't have anything poisonous in it either. and there is some evidence that it inhibits the growth of harmful variations of e-coli. using iceberg lettuce in the diet occasionally can be justified. using spinach cannot. everytime you use spinach, great care should be taken to undo the damage. provide a high quality source of calcium, such as cuttlebone, and feed foods low in phosphorus for several days or weeks thereafter to prevent calcium from being leached from the bones.

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: it's a matter of degree. of the foods that have oxalic acid (and there are many) spinach is the worst. here's a brief sample of ppm for comparison: : pineapple 6 banana 6 grapefruit 0 rasberry 28 strawberry 20 gooseberry 50 melon 0 : carrots 26 parsley 215 rhubarb (stalks) 500 spinach 860 tea leaves 1400 rhubarb (leaves) 4000 tomato 4 grapes 25 cabbage 9 lettuce (head-) 4 : tea leaves (1400) are not normally eaten, and rhubarb leaves will kill you within 48 hours, so of the foods that are commonly eaten and not immediately deadly, spinach is the worst. there is little or no good reason to eat raw spinach, or to feed it to chelonia. there is such a wide variety of better choices (almost anything!) from which to choose, that spinach is not necessary. why bother with it? use collards, endive, red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, dandelion, plantainweed. all greens have some oxalic acid, but tend to be in the moderate range-- 20-50 ppm. even chard doesn't come close to spinach in this regard. turtle ppl often gripe about how bad iceberg lettuce is because it has very little actual nutrition, but it doesn't have anything poisonous in it either. and there is some evidence that it inhibits the growth of harmful variations of e-coli. using iceberg lettuce in the diet occasionally can be justified. using spinach cannot. everytime you use spinach, great care should be taken to undo the damage. provide a high quality source of calcium, such as cuttlebone, and feed foods low in phosphorus for several days or weeks thereafter to prevent calcium from being leached from the bones.

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