03/08/2022
One of the Best Foods to Slow Dog Aging: Spinach!🍃🐶
Folate is an essential B vitamin💊 found in food. It helps with the production of DNA and without folate new, healthy DNA cannot be created. Cell biologist and longevity researcher Rhonda Patrick, PhD, maintains that “a deficiency in folate is equivalent to standing under ionizing radiation due to the DNA damage it causes.” And DNA🧬 damage is a BIG contributor to aging.
More recently, folate has also been shown to play a role in protecting telomeres, those important structures at the end of chromosomes that are shortened with age and lifestyle choices; shorter telomeres are associated with shorter lifespan and higher incidence of disease. Being highly heat-sensitive🔥, folate is one of the first nutrients to be inactivated in processed pet food.
In addition to its many vitamins and minerals, spinach provides antioxidants tied to anti-inflammation and disease protection. These include kaempferol, a flavonoid shown to reduce the risk of cancer, as well as slow its growth and spread. Another, called quercetin, has been linked to possible protective effects on memory🧠 as well as heart disease🫀 and type 2 diabetes. Two of the lesser-known glycoglycerolipid components of spinach🍃 include sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol (SQDG) and monogalactosyl diacylglycerol (MGDG), which are known for their anti-cancer activity. Overall, spinach contains the second-largest quantity of total glycoglycerolipids among other popular vegetables!
How to prepare spinach🍃 for you and your dog?
Scientists say the best way to consume spinach for maximum lutein intake may be puréed. That’s because when spinach is chopped into small pieces, more lutein is released from the leaves. Older research found that cooking also impacts the folate content of spinach; boiling slashed this B vitamin level by nearly half. Steaming, however, resulted in no significant loss of folate! Cooking also diminishes the vitamin E levels in spinach (and reduces oxalates, if you want to reduce oxalate consumption) but actually increases the amount of beta carotene. So it can be served cooked or raw.
Looking for an easy recipe to get spinach into your dog? Try making our Spinach Longevity Cubes! 🍃🧊🐾
INGREDIENTS-
* 5 ounces of fresh or steamed spinach🍃 (preferably organic)
* 2/3 cup of water (even better, try bone🦴, beef🐮 or chicken🐔 broth, preferably organic)
INSTRUCTIONS-
* Add spinach and water (or broth) in a blender and puree. If the mixture seems too thick, add in extra broth.🍵
* Pour the puree into ice cube trays and freeze until solid.🧊
* Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Add 1 ice cube🧊 per 30lbs of body weight🐕 a day to your dog’s meal.
This is one simple and powerful way to add longevity benefits to your dog’s bowl! Looking for more ideas or recipes? Check out our new book The Forever Dog with dozens of other suggestions available here: www.foreverdog.com
