Spinach contains phytochemicals called lutein (loo-teen) and zeaxanthin (zee-x-an-thin), which are in the carotenoid family. They protect the body from macular degeneration, the single biggest cause of blindness in older people. These carotenoids are also associated with lowering the risk for certain types of cancers. It’s been found that the more spinach consumed, the lower the risk of almost every type of cancer.

Of course we want our children to reap the benefits spinach has to offer, but how on earth can we get them to eat it? Here are a few suggestions that might have the little folk gulping it down without a fuss.

For starters, use tender baby spinach, because it has a milder flavor and is more kid friendly than the larger variety. Use it in place of lettuce wherever possible. Try placing a few leaves in a sandwich instead of regular lettuce, chop it into shreds and use it in tacos, wrap a piece around your child’s favorite cheese, add whole leaves to vegetable soup or chop it finely if it needs to go unnoticed. Consider making a combo Caesar salad and use half spinach and half dark green romaine lettuce. Shred it into pasta and pizza sauce. It also bakes beautifully on top of pizza. Enlist the kids to decorate the pizza with spinach and watch their enthusiasm grow. All they need are spinach leaves and scissors and your pizza will soon have flowers, faces, and even spiky hair. Their imaginations are limitless. A dull spinach salad might easily be revived with any colorful sweet fruit that your children like to eat. A few great combinations are mango with red grapes and nectarines or peaches with blueberries. Be sure to cut the fruit into small pieces so your child gets some in every bite. Kids are more inclined to eat spinach salad if it’s slight intrinsic bitterness is offset with the sweet fruit. Add a salad dressing made with fruit and you’re sure to entice even the most stubborn eaters.

So call on your creative powers and begin slipping in spinach wherever possible and know that your kids are eating a real power food. Where’s Popeye, that great old spinach guzzling role model, when we need him?