Are Microgreens More Nutrient Dense?

Are Microgreens Worth the Hype?

Dr. Sarah  0:28  

The surprising thing is that most of the claims of microgreens having way more concentrated nutrients and being like these nutrient powerhouse, right, you see online, like people say that you get the same amount of nutrition and the tiny little micro green as you get in the whole leaf. That’s not actually backed up by the data. But also, there isn’t that much data. So there’s really surprisingly few studies that measure the amount of nutrients in the sprout of kale like baby kale versus the big leaf of kale. But there certainly are some that are, like in the big leaf, that big leaf is photosynthesizing, it’s making energy for the whole plant. So all of the nutrients that are required for that leaf to like make energy and keep the entire plant alive. The you’re getting that in the mature leaf, whereas you’re not actually getting that in the sprout. And then there’s some phytonutrients, like sulforaphane, which is a type of glucose Immolate found in some members of the cabbage family that’s pretty high in broccoli, it’s even higher in broccoli sprouts. So there’s probably a few things that are higher in sprouts and microgreens. But most of the valuable nutrition you’re getting just as much, if not more, in the mature green, typically, the mature green is considered a more sustainable food. So your, your, you know, harvesting a couple of leaves in the whole plant is staying alive, compared to you’re growing all of these seeds on a tray, and then you like just harvest all of the microgreens so typically, you’re getting a more like, sustainably produced product from the mature leaf, and you’re getting more nutrition, but based on the data that we have, it’s not it’s not like a It’s not such a huge difference that I would say like oh no, you should just eat like just eat the whole kale leaf don’t eat baby kale or kale sprouts. It’s very much if you like one and you don’t like the other then that’s fine. So a lot of people like sprouts, they’re a little bit crispy crispier they have you know, they there’s this the textural experience is a little bit different, they can have a more mild flavor, especially compared to like in the cruciferous vegetable family like especially compared to the more bitter mature greens. So if you like the sprouts, they’re great. It’s just I think the claim saying that there’s so much better than the grown up leaves i That’s not at all where the data is out right now. That being said there’s there’s so there’s like more holes in the data than there is data to actually say you know one is one is better than the other. So the the take home message is eat what you like have access to and can afford so sometimes baby greens tastes way better or they fit a recipe better.

Producer Potts  3:57  

They are easy to grow at home so that might make them more affordable and better for people in an apartment building right?

Dr. Sarah  3:59  

Yeah, like you get whole kits to grow them a lot of them will just grow in a glass jar though with you can either put like cheesecloth over them they need some air circulation. So a lot of them you can just grow in a glass jar in a windowsill at first they don’t need any light at all it just depends on like how how much you want to grow them out and do you want to get all the way to the first little tiny relieves or do you just want to sprout them so they’re pretty easy to grow. Growing them is typically pretty affordable. I grow broccoli sprouts and I’m in the same bag of broccoli seeds. It’s been about three years and I think I spent $8 on the bag and I’ve probably used like a 20th of it so like a great deal. Yeah, I mean you get a lot for growing it yourself for the effort. But there’s not there’s not a good nutritional reason. In the opt for sprouts over the grown up, I almost said big I almost said, big boy vegetables. And then I remembered the question and I rejected that language. Let’s grow the grown up version of the grown up version of vegetables, nutritionally, there’s not a good reason to pick one over the other, you’re probably getting more nutrition from the grown up version. But if you like sprouts or microgreens, better, then go for it. Don’t, then that’s fine.