Spinach adds a new benefit to our health

A recent study has discovered the importance of eating green leafy vegetables and especially spinach. Popeye already said it, that spinach was good, but it was not known that they were so good. This research focuses on gut bacteria and how they use hydrogen sulfide gas and turn it into something beneficial.

We all know that the gases we expel from our body are harmful, well, there is a specific one which is hydrogen sulfide that is found in green leafy vegetables and it is expelled creating a sensation of relief and with an anti-inflammatory effect.

According to a group of microbiologists from the University of Vienna and the University of Konstanz, they discovered that many green leafy vegetables and greens have a sulfur-containing sugar called sulfoquinovose.

The study, which was published in The ISME Journal , explained bacteria found naturally in the intestine produce a gas called hydrogen sulfide after consuming spinach. This gas is very characteristic, as it smells like rotten eggs. High concentrations of this gas in the intestines cause cancer .

Un bol con ensalada de espinacas, nueces y queso de cabra

And this is where the research is focused. The bacteria that inhabit our intestines are capable of feeding and processing sulfoquinovose, using it as a nutrient and helping to generate the growth of key microorganisms in the intestinal microbiome .

By promoting the growth of Eubacterium rectole, (one of the 10 most common gut microbes in healthy individuals), these bacteria ferment sulfoquinovose through a metabolic pathway which, in turn, serves as food for them and where sulfur is ultimately created. of hydrogen that is expelled to the outside in the form of foul-smelling flatulence .

The stinky flatulence cannot dissuade us from continuing to eat green leaves and especially spinach, since it favors our body and our intestinal flora. Reducing your chances of suffering from cancer due to the accumulation of hydrogen sulfide and other harmful gases.