“I’m strong to the “finich”, ’cause I eats me spinach,” sang famous fictional sailor, Popeye.
And it looks like Popeye was right.
New Australian research has found that eating just a handful of leafy greens each day could supercharge your muscles.
Adding as little as one cup of leafy green vegetables to your diet each day could be enough to boost muscle function, according to a study by researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) published in the Journal of Nutrition on Thursday.
Leafy green vegetables are rich in nitrates, and researchers found that people who ate a diet rich in the naturally occuring compounds had significantly better muscle function of their lower limbs than those who didn’t.
The findings are valuable because poor muscle function is associated with a host of health problems including greater risk of falls and fractures.
ECU researchers analysed data from 3,759 Australians taking part in Melbourne’s Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute AusDiab study over a 12-year period.
Those who regularly ate nitrate-rich foods had 11 per cent better lower limb strength than those with the lowest levels of nitrate intake and up to 4 per cent faster walking speeds.
“Our study has shown that diets high in nitrate-rich vegetables may bolster your muscle strength independently of any physical activity,” said the study’s lead researcher Marc Sim, of ECU’s Institute for Nutrition research.
To “optimise muscle function” people should eat “a balanced diet rich in green leafy vegetables in combination with regular exercise”, including weight training, Dr Sim said.
Bolstering muscle function is considered vital for good overall health, and is especially important for maintaing bone strength in later life, he said.