Spinach is one of the best foods for healthy hair because spinach leaves are packed with nutrients like vitamin C, Iron, and magnesium which is used for scalp health and building the proteins to grow hair. But spinach isn’t just a hair healthy food, it’s a hair superfood because of how easy it is to incorporate enough into your daily routines.
Need a fast and nutritious breakfast when you’re late for work? Mix spinach into a smoothie while you’re getting ready, or fold it into a quick omelet before you head out. There’s no shortage of ways to enjoy a spinach salad at lunch like with strawberries and balsamic dressing, or a chicken, egg, bacon bit, and honey Dijon dressing. Who doesn’t love garlic at dinner?
Sauté some spinach in minutes with garlic for a side dish with hamburgers (which are good for your hair), steaks, or anything really. You could even mix it into a pasta dish like alfredo or carbonara as spinach tastes great with the meats and cheeses.
Spinach is also one of the few leafy greens with protein. It actually gets half of its total calories from protein and comes with all these other hair healthy nutrients.
- Vitamin C
- Iron
- Potassium
- Vitamin A (Beta carotene)
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Magnesium
- Lutein
Each of these nutrients are essential for hair growth and health. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that keeps your scalp healthy, and it’s crucial for collagen production and long, healthy hair. Additionally, spinach is a good source of magnesium, another essential nutrient your body uses to make the keratin proteins that are the building blocks for your hair which you can read more about in this study.
Iron helps with hemoglobin production, which carries oxygen to your cells so they can grow and be healthy. Vitamin E guards your hair from the harmful effects of pollution and radiation from UV rays. And Vitamin A helps protect against dry, dull hair by helping your body produce sebum that keeps hair from drying out and helps it grow according to the NIH.
How you consume spinach also makes a difference in the amounts of nutrients you get. So if your main concern is keeping your hair and scalp lubricated, opt for more cooked spinach since it’ll give you 3 times the Beta Carotene (Vitamin A), but if you’re more concerned about protecting against hair loss (here’s a great study on how the two are related) then go for a chopped spinach salad to get more of the antioxidant lutein.
Thankfully spinach is such a versatile ingredient that getting your fill of both raw and cooked is easy, especially when you combine it with these other healthy foods! Here's two more ideas.
- Top a spinach salad with Avocado that contains biotin and B vitamins, among numerous other nutrients
- Saute tomatoes with your spinach for a super dose of Antioxidant and collagen crucial Vitamin C, which will also help fight free radical damage.
With so many options and so many benefits for your hair, you might say spinach is an “unbe-leaf-able” veggie, but science proves it, so add plenty of spinach to your diet for shiny, healthy hair! If you found this guide helpful, subscribe to the TELETIMES blog below for more just like it.
