Juicing spinach or kale? This is a key question for those of us who find that juicing gives a great boost to a healthy lifestyle. The GOODista explored juicing in our post: Juicing Explored: Fitness Foodie Fad or Nutrition Fab? A fellow wellness blogger Jim Corkern at sunflower-press.com, has also looked in-depth at benefits of juicing – and hence, The GOODista and sunflower-press.com decided to collaborate. We are delighted to invite The GOODista readers to Jim’s guest post. It is well-researched, adds great value, and gives us the answer to why you should juice spinach, not kale.
Juicing: Spinach or Kale? by Guest Blogger J. Corkern, SunFlower Press
Kale is one of the most popular things to juice, but is it really any better than more mild-mannered spinach greens? The benefits of juicing are now widely known and all that is left is to decide what you should be juicing on a daily basis. Should you be juicing spinach or kale?
What is Kale?
Kale is a dark green cruciferous vegetable that popular food culture may have convinced you to add to your diet. The recommendation isn’t without merit, as it contains a high concentration of flavonoids and antioxidants, not to mention its high amount of vitamin content.
What Does Kale Mean For My Juice?
Kale has recently begun to be found in supermarkets all across the United States while cooking TV shows use it quite frequently, touting its great taste and nutritional value.
But, the truth is this: kale is bitter and most people don’t like bitter greens. Juicing is hard enough to justify from a flavor standpoint (if you’re juicing enough vegetables) without adding bitter flavors to the mix.
Kale may be good for you, but the strong taste is enough to bring the taste of the best juice recipes to the pits.
What is Spinach?
Maybe you like spinach, maybe you don’t. But, I can promise you that raw baby spinach has a much more neutral taste than kale and the flavors of other juice ingredients override it pretty easily.
Nutritionally, spinach is close to kale and is considered by many to be actually superior to it in nutrient content.
What Does Spinach Mean For My Juice?
Spinach in your juice instead of kale means that it will have less protein, slightly less vitamin A, less vitamin C, less calcium, less vitamin B6. But, it will have more natural sodium, more potassium, more iron, and more magnesium.
But, if your juice is balanced and not too high in sugar, the difference between the two shouldn’t matter much. 
Why You Should Juice Spinach, Not Kale
In the end, it’s not so much of an argument of which is healthier as it is an argument of which one you will be able to stick with juicing. Ultimately the healthier of the two for you is the one you eat the most of. Take a look however the image below and compare spinach vs kale.
Calcium & Magnesium Contents
Kale may have more calcium, but spinach has more magnesium. This is yet another thing that makes an argument to use spinach in your juices instead of kale. While the body does store calcium in your bones, it doesn’t store magnesium, so you are more likely to be magnesium deficient.
Juicing Spinach or Kale: The Bottom Line
Kale may beat out spinach in a few areas like vitamin C, vitamin A, protein, and calcium, but you’re likely to be getting these in other areas of your diet. This isn’t true for magnesium and studies show that you’re more likely to be magnesium deficient if you live in the United States. It’s a little harder to obtain and having a magnesium deficiency has been linked to insulin resistance and diabetes.
Not only that, but kale can add a very bitter flavor to your juices, even though it can be balanced out somewhat with lemons or limes. Spinach is much easier to juice because the 
taste is very neutral and it goes well with many fruits & other vegetables.
Continue juicing, and enjoy all its benefits! Spinach or Kale? Let us know what you think!
Article by Jim Corkern, sunflower-press.com – all rights reserved, published on The GOODista® as part of our guest blog collaboration.
We hope you enjoyed this article by sunflower-press.com, and welcome you to comment and share to fellow juicing friends. Do feel free to write to us if you also have an article to contribute to The GOODista’s inspirational lifestyle changes you can do to Feel, Be and Do Good! You can also subscribe to our newsletter and get special offers and more here below.
Recommended and Related:
- The Benefits of Juicing – sunflower-press.com
- 15 Kale Smoothies and Health Benefits – easyhealthysmoothie.com
- Juicing Explored: Fitness Foodie Fad or Nutrition Fab? – thegoodista.com
- How Rainbow Foods Will Boost Your Health– thegoodista.com
- Juicing Book and Products on Amazon.co.uk:
Do you juice? Please share your comments:
Is the spinach vs kale based on how many ounces of juice? I am basically looking to find out how much magnesium is in an ounce of juiced spinach. Do you know the answer to this?
Hi Nicole, You got me curious as well – and as I didn’t know exactly, I used the juicing calculator to figure out how much magnesium is in an ounce of juiced spinach. Hopefully, you can now figure out what juice you want to make and how much to use of which fruit or vegetable. Keep on juicing!
Cool