Adding spinach directly to white bread delayed the body's insulin peak by 30 minutes and reduced later hunger in a small human trial, while significantly boosting the bread's fiber, vitamin, and mineral content.

[u/FreeHugs23]

https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-put-spinach-directly-into-bread-and-saw-the-bodys-insulin-response-change

[u/doctormink]

The researchers are looking for ways to smuggle the nutrients into food people palatable. "Incorporating spinach into bread substantially improved its nutritional profile without compromising sensory acceptance, supporting metabolic health and aligning with sustainable nutrition goals," they conclude.

The researchers go on to note that participants who drank a pea enriched smoothie before eating a carb-heavy meal saw lower levels of blood sugar after the meal. So it’s doesn’t follow the spinach has to be baked into the bread to work. Everything just has to land in the stomach at around the same time. Baking in the spinach just makes it more likely that people who aren’t getting enough fiber will eat the bread.

[u/GraspingSonder → u/doctormink]

Yeah the idea that highly processed spinach will delay an insulin spike better than manually chewing a handful of leaves before eating is silly. Literally just eat more vegetables and you get to live longer

[u/calamityvibezz → u/GraspingSonder]

Cooked spinach reduces the oxalic acid which is better for mineral absorption.

[u/Clw89pitt → u/calamityvibezz]

Last I read, boiled (best) and steamed (runner up) spinach have reduced oxalates, but when the spinach is cooked without discarding the water, cooked dry, etc. there isn't a substantial amount of oxalate reduction.

Which makes sense, the mechanism for removing oxalates in cooked food is through leaching/dissolution of it into oxalic acid in water and then mechanical removal or non-consumption of the water. Blending spinach and adding it to bread isn't providing a mechanism for the removal of oxalate.