7 Reasons Why Eating Too Much Spinach Will Harm You

Spinach is a green leafy vegetable loaded with essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and polyphenols, etc, that provide many health and beauty benefits. Despite these amazing benefits, don’t overeat spinach as there are some side effects of eating too much spinach.

# Can Hinder Absorption of Minerals

Spinach contains oxalate, an organic acid that gets excreted out of the body through stool or urine.

However, in excessive quantity, our kidneys fail to filter them out properly and they may bind with essential nutrients like zinc, calcium, and magnesium, etc.

This may lead to poor absorption of these nutrients by our body and increases the risk of mineral deficiency.

These minerals keep us healthy as they perform/assist various biochemical reactions in our body, and deficiency of these minerals may harm our health.

# Too Many Dietary Fibers are Bad

A single cup of spinach contains about 6 grams of dietary fibers that provide numerous benefits like improving bowel movement, relieving constipation and digestive problems, lowering cholesterol levels, eliminating toxins, and regulating blood sugar, etc.

However, overeating grapefruit should be avoided as a high level of dietary fibers may cause problems like abdominal cramping, diarrhea, malabsorption, constipation, intestinal gas, and intestinal blockage, etc.

# May Increase Risk of Diarrhea And Constipation

Dietary fibers in spinach are the natural laxative that improves bowel movement and relieves constipation.

However, eating too much spinach may increase the risk of mild to moderate diarrhea because of its laxative properties.

In some cases, it may increase constipation risk as dietary fibers absorb water from the digestive tract making it difficult to pass stool.

It may also cause other problems like abdominal cramping, bloating, and intestinal gas, etc.

# Too Much Iron Is Bad

Iron in spinach increases RBC production in the body and aids in treating iron-induced anemia, a blood disorder that causes symptoms like fatigue, weakness, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, and chest pain.

Iron also helps with the conversion of blood sugar to energy, boosting immunity, maintaining a healthy pregnancy, and improving cognitive functions, etc.

Eat spinach in moderation as otherwise, too much iron may cause symptoms like chronic fatigue, joint pain, abdominal pain, irregular heartbeat, hair loss, depression, high blood sugar, etc.

If you are taking iron supplements then consult with your doctor before adding spinach to your routine to eliminate food-drug intolerance risk.

Another concern is that high dietary fibers ( on overeating spinach) may hinder iron absorption, thereby increasing the risk of anemia.

# Oxalates In Spinach And Kidney Stones Risk

When consumed moderately, spinach is good for the kidneys as antioxidants like vitamin C in it protect the kidneys from free radical damage, and dietary fibers improve kidney health by helping with detoxification.

However, excessive consumption of spinach is bad for the kidneys.

Oxalates present in the spinach are efficiently removed by our kidneys through urine.

However, when spinach is consumed in excess then the high concentration of oxalates may cause damage to the kidneys.

In high concentration, oxalates in the spinach bind with the calcium of the body to form calcium oxalate, a common cause of kidney stones.

# Purines In Spinach And Gouts Risk

Vitamin C, an anti-inflammatory compound in spinach provides relief from pain and inflammation caused by inflammatory conditions like gouts and arthritis.

But, eating too much spinach is bad for individuals prone to gouts and arthritis.

Purines in spinach break down to uric acid in our body and later is efficiently removed by the kidneys before they cause any harm.

However, overeating spinach may lead to a high concentration of uric acid in the bloodstream and worsen the condition of gouts and arthritis.

It may cause joint pain, joint stiffness, redness or swelling, pain and difficulty in urinating, blood in urine, foul-smelling urine, and kidney stones.

# Can Give Rise to Teeth Coarseness

Spinach makes our teeth harsh and gritty as they contain oxalic acid that forms small crystals that don’t dissolve in water.

This temporary side effect can easily be dealt with by brushing teeth regularly.