Spinach Enjoys Surge in Popularity on New Health Evidence

Waitrose sales of fresh, bagged spinach leaves rose 21% in the last four weeks compared to the same period last year. Shoppers also snapped up 18% more frozen spinach in the last week of January compared to the same week of 2010.

2/16/2011 --- Sales of the nutrient-packed vegetable, spinach jumped by a fifth at Waitrose in the past month ahead of new revelations about its health-improving properties.

Customers appear to be buying more spinach to help give their immune systems a late winter boost.

Waitrose sales of fresh, bagged spinach leaves rose 21% in the last four weeks compared to the same period last year.

Shoppers also snapped up 18% more frozen spinach in the last week of January compared to the same week of 2010.

Waitrose prepared vegetables buyer Rhonwen Cunningham said: “Popeye is more than 80 years old but it’s clear his taste for spinach is striking a chord with modern diners.

”Customers are putting this green veg in their shopping baskets because they know it is healthy and they like the fact it is quick and easy to cook.”

Research from Swedish medical university the Karolinska Institute published this month said eating nitrates found in spinach helped power the body’s muscles.

Spinach was a firm favourite of muscle-bound cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man who insisted the green leafy veg made him strong.

But the long-held belief that spinach is packed with iron was down to a mistake in research published in the late 1800s.

Decades later it emerged that a wrongly-placed decimal point had made the vegetable’s iron content appear 10 times higher than it actually was.

Recently, spinach has been dubbed a “superfood” because it is a rich source of vitamins and other nutrients.

Waitrose nutritionist Nathalie Winn said: “Spinach could be viewed as a superfood because it provides us with a number of vitamins and minerals.

“It is an excellent source of vitamins A and C as well as the mineral folate.

“Around 80g of spinach, that’s roughly two handfuls, provide one portion towards the recommended Five-a-Day.”

Even Waitrose sales of its chilled Spinach Mornay side dish increased by 9 per cent last month compared to January 2010.

Spinach and other green, leafy vegetables are rich in vitamin C, folates, carotenoids and vitamin K.

Waitrose has increased its fresh spinach range due to high customer demand. Mini bags of spinach; spinach with red kale; and spinach with Oriental leaves joined large bags of spinach on Waitrose vegetable aisles in the past year.