ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997               TAG: 9704020011
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 8    EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES\THE ROANOKE TIMES 

NO OTHER GREEN STIRS SUCH PASSIONS - OR IS THERE MORE TO IT THAN THAT?

Dear Charles:

I feel your pain.

Your mother's preparation method probably was from the school that boiled spinach in a large quantity of salted water in order to preserve the vegetable's color. Bright green though it might be, spinach cooked this way loses most of its vitamin content. And that's too bad because, as Popeye has said all along, spinach really does have a lot going for it.

One-half cup of cooked spinach provides about 20 percent of the daily Recommended Dietary Allowance of iron for adult women.

Spinach also contains a carotenoid called lutein that "may help prevent the deterioration of the retina that causes blindness in older people," according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Spinach ranks high in vitamin A, which means it helps to support the body's immune system.

Spinach contains magnesium and calcium, essential minerals for healthy bones. It does not contain fat or cholesterol.

Of course, none of that means much if you can't

bring yourself to swallow the stuff - a situation we're hoping to remedy.

So, Charles, here is a simple, most basic of cooking methods (wilting), which provides the most nutritious finished vegetable, plus a few additional recipes to show off spinach's versatility.

Take heart. It's never too late to eat your spinach and get healthy and strong. Like you know who.

Recipes for:

WILTED SPINACH

ULLRICH'S CREAMED SPINACH

POTAGE VERT

EASY SPINACH BALLS

SALMON AND SPINACH NOODLE BAKE

LENGTH: Short :   42 lines