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.