Vegetables and everything else
Spinach on a GLP-1: protein, portions and how to actually eat it
About 3 g of protein per 100 g (3.5 oz), cooked, for around 23 calories. A fist of cooked spinach, about 80 g (2.8 oz), gives roughly 2 g of protein for 18 calories.
How spinach sits on a GLP-1
Spinach is about 3 g of protein per 100 g (3.5 oz) cooked, and 100 g cooked is a whole bag raw, so the number is real and the serve never is. It is soft, it wilts into nothing, and it takes no chewing, which on a GLP-1 makes it the easiest green to get in. It is a source of folate, non haem iron and potassium in a serve that takes up almost no room, and it belongs in your eggs, your soup and your curry, not on the plate as a protein.
When your appetite is small
Wilt a handful into whatever protein you are cooking. Two eggs with a handful of spinach wilted in first is still a two egg breakfast at about 15 g, with a vegetable in it that you never had to chew. A fist of cooked spinach is about 2 g of protein, which is not why it is there.
Three ways to prepare it
Wilted into eggs
A handful of leaves in the pan with a knob of butter for a minute, then the eggs. The spinach shrinks to a spoonful and disappears.
Stirred into a soup or a dal at the end
Frozen spinach blocks into a lentil soup or a chicken broth in the last two minutes. Green, soft and no extra chewing.
Cooked down with ricotta as a filling
Spinach and ricotta together as a filling for a small omelette or a baked dish. The ricotta makes it a 12 g serve.
What to eat it with
Eggs, ricotta, feta, paneer, lentils, a broth. Spinach goes into the protein; it is never the protein.
How it compares
| Food | Protein per 100 g | Energy per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spinach | about 3 g | 23 kcal | this page |
| Kale | about 3 g | 35 kcal | See the page |
| Broccoli | about 2.8 g | 35 kcal | See the page |
| Eggs | about 13 g | 150 kcal | See the page |
All figures are typical values for the food as eaten, cooked, not laboratory figures for a particular brand.
Australian, US and UK names
Spinach in all three countries; baby spinach in bags is the common supermarket form. English spinach in Australia is the bunched mature leaf. Silverbeet in Australia is chard in the US and UK, a different, sturdier leaf that cooks the same way.
Questions people ask
Does spinach have protein?
A little: about 3 g per 100 g (3.5 oz) cooked, so a fist-sized serve is about 2 g. It is worth eating for iron, folate and the ease of getting a vegetable in, but not for the protein.
Your number comes first
Knowing what is in a food only helps once you know how much you are aiming for. The target is 1.2 to 1.6 g of protein per kg of your goal weight, not your current weight, which for most people is 90 to 140 g a day.
Work out your protein targetMore on eating well when your appetite is small: high protein foods for a small appetite, how much protein on a GLP-1, and every food we have written up. The whole system in five documents is the Keep Muscle Kit, A$47 / US$29 / £23.
EverStrong provides nutrition and strength coaching and education. It is not medical advice and does not replace your prescribing doctor.