No wonder the plateau diet wants you to have spinach once a day. Spinach is an appetite suppressant, who knew?
The article that just came out on it is a medical article.
According to a Swedish study, researchers have discovered that spinach contains thylakoid, a compound common in other green leaves that slows down food digestion. When prepared properly, spinach has the potential to be an appetite suppressant, with the effect of making people feel fuller and curbing over-eating. In addition to lower blood glucose levels, the thylakoids were able to suppress people’s appetites for longer, which could be useful for those who are trying to lose weight while battling constant hunger pangs.
So have it in an omelette, a smoothie or in a salad….but despite kale being a great source of iron, it is spinach that will curb your appetite and allow you to be more successful in a weight loss program.
Here is a recipe for a LOW CARB spinach smoothie. Most smoothie recipes call for a banana. Bananas spike blood sugar and are high in sugar and carbs (18g per medium banana). So, here is an alternative.
1 c. water
1 c. unsweetened vanilla hemp milk or unsweetened almond milk (Trader Joe’s has a great one in the refrigerator section)
1/2 mixed frozen berries (this is what helps give it the smoothie-like consistency and temperature, although I suppose you could leave it out to dip under 10 g. of carbs)
4 cups spinach leaves (or kale, chard, dandelion, mustard greens, etc.) I’ve read its best to switch out your greens each day, so I buy 2-3 at a time. Spinach has the mildest flavor, so you might want to ease into green smoothies with this first.
3 tsp. flax seeds
1 Tb. almond butter
Blend and serve! Should be more than enough to drink and share. Can replace a meal(out of six), salads and your fruit for the day. Should be about 17g of carbs if you drink the whole thing! It is less carbs if it is in a salad. There is about 1 carb per cup of spinach.
Skinny-Rules 