What Can Microgreens Do for Your Health?

What Are Microgreens?

Microgreens are just baby edible versions of many vegetables & herbs. They are cut & harvested usually around a week after germinating. Stored in the seed are a TON of nutrients when you consider it on a per weight basis. Seeds store nutrients to get themselves going. They need this energy to establish roots and extract nutrients from the ground. Since we're cutting it right as it's developing roots, all that nutrition went up into forming its first set of true leaves, which are the ones we eat!

Check out Learn How to Grow Microgreens at Home | A Step-by-Step Guide.

What's the Science Say?

Opinions aside. Research on microgreens is still lacking overall. That doesn't mean they should be ignored or disregarded, quite the opposite, actually, based on early findings.

Let's look at the most "authoritative" source we have, the US Department of Agriculture, which has said in a study that the leaves of almost all microgreens have “four to six times more nutrients than the mature leaves of the same plant.”

Dr. Gene Lester, a USDA researcher in the study, points out, “All of these nutrients are extremely important for skin, eyes, and fighting cancer and have all sorts of benefits associated with them.”

Quite impressive so far, but let's keep looking.

The University of Maryland recently did a study on 25 varieties of microgreens and got some interesting results.  Microgreens almost all had higher nutrient concentrations, as we've already found, but they varied in their vitamin benefits and levels.  For example, microgreens are rich in Vitamin C, but low in Vitamin E. Green daikon radish microgreens were rich in Vitamin E but low in Lutein compared to amaranth, cabbage, or cilantro.

So, if you're looking for a supplementation of a particular vitamin through microgreens, this is the study to dig into. 

The same study also tested microgreens on mice, controlling for several differing diets.  This showed that microgreens seemed to improve factors such as blood cholesterol levels and weight control.  These are only mice, but still worth noting. 

Most Nutritious Microgreens

This same study took the time to point out 4 of the 25 microgreens that have the highest concentrations of four different vitamins and carotenoids:

• Red Cabbage
• Green Daikon Radish
• Cilantro
• Garnet Amaranth

Check out Top 10 Microgreens to Grow for more suggestions on microgreen varieties.

Microgreens are Pesticide-Free

Besides the nutrition, the absolute best part of eating microgreens is that they require no chemicals of any kind! Just pure H20. (Learn how to water them best.) And since you can grow them on your own countertop, you are in complete control, you know what you are eating is completely clean. When else can you say that?

The microgreens phase is not fading. In fact, they're gaining popularity, and with that, consumer demand is increasing. Study data will continue to come in, shedding light on these special little plants.

Growing Microgreens at Home

You can grow microgreens in the kitchen (or anywhere indoors)! You can grow microgreens on a windowsill, under a grow light, or even outside. For help getting started, our microgreen resources are here to help.