Supermarket Lighting Enhances Nutrient Level of Fresh Spinach

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100303113959.htm

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2010) — Far from being a food spoiler, the fluorescent lighting in supermarkets actually can boost the nutritional value of fresh spinach, scientists are reporting. The finding could lead to improved ways of preserving and enhancing the nutritional value of spinach and perhaps other veggies, they suggest in a study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

----- (skipping)

During continuous light exposure after nine days, levels of folate increased between 84 and 100 percent, for instance. Levels of vitamin K increased between 50 and 100 percent, depending on the spinach variety tested. By contrast, spinach leaves stored under continuous darkness tended to have declining or unchanged levels of nutrients, the scientists say.

..