To Prevent Varicose Veins, Eat Your Greens

Here’s something even Popeye didn’t know: Eating your spinach might help prevent varicose veins, those enlarged blue veins that afflict 5% to 30% of adults, especially women.

So say French researchers who compared healthy and varicose veins. They concluded that adequate vitamin K is needed to help activate a key protein that blocks the calcification and cell proliferation that can lead to vein distortions and disease.

Best sources of vitamin K: Swiss chard, kale, parsley, Brussels sprouts, spinach and broccoli.

This EatSmart column is reprinted from USAWEEKEND Magazine and is copyrighted by Jean Carper. It cannot be reprinted without permission from Jean Carper.