Spinach not as healthy as we thought

For years, we’ve been told the key to a healthy diet is monitoring the kinds of foods we eat and increasing fruits and vegetables in our diets.

The best vegetables to eat are the green, leafy ones.

In fact, one particularly helpful vegetable is spinach.

According to Linda Felt’s book, “Spinach and Beyond: Loving Life and Dark Green Leafy Vegetables,” spinach contains large amounts of minerals and vitamins, including vitamins A, B and C, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium and potassium.

Not to mention thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. Just as impressive, spinach contains two beneficial phytochemicals: lutein and zeaxanthin.

These two actually prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.

One cup of this tasty treat contains just 41 calories and no fat. Now all these things probably make you want to go out right now and pick up a bag of fresh spinach. After all, 77-year old Marion Graff of Manitowoc, Wis. did.

But for him, the noted health benefits did not exactly kick in as they should have.

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to consumers about E. coli contamination in bagged spinach.

In addition to Graff’s death, 100 other people in 19 different states have fallen ill due to the lethal strain of E.coli that has been found in these bags of spinach.

It’s a scary thing to be under the impression that you’re being health conscious by eating some good ole spinach, and then dying the next day. The irony in this situation is the person who ate the Big Mac is still here to tell the story.

Yewande Addie for the editorial board.