Are microgreens good for our health ?

In 2012, a study conducted by the University of Maryland in the United States investigates the concentration of vitamins and carotenoids (bioactive compounds that play an important role in nutrition and health) in 25 different microgreens varieties. If the concentrations vary greatly between the different species studied, they prove to be up to 10 times higher than their adult counterparts ! Among the varieties with the highest nutrient concentration are red cabbage, coriander, red amaranth and green daikon radish (Xiao and al., 2012).

Regarding the mineral composition of microgreens, an Italian research team reveals in 2015 that this largely depends on the composition of the nutrient solution used (Di Gioia and Santamaria 2015). Thus, we can then obtain vegetables rich in vitamins but having a low level of Sodium or Nitrates by decreasing the amount present in the nutrient solution.

Much more recently, at the end of last month, an Italian study found that microgreens could be interesting foods for people with impaired kidney function. Indeed, they are usually forced to reduce their consumption of fruits and vegetables because of their high concentration of potassium. Moreover, the nutrient concentration of microgreens can easily be modulated through the nutrient solution used.  Therefore, researchers have shown that low potassium microgreens can be produced without affecting the concentration of other nutrients (Renna et al., 2018).  And this confirms the nutritional and dietary potential of these foods.

To conclude, if you want to learn more about microgreens, click here to discover our microgreens training (in french).

 Sources :

Di Gioia, Francesco, et Pietro Santamaria. 2015. « The nutritional properties of microgreens Las propiedades nutricionales de las micro-hortalizas ». 1. Micro-ortaggi, agro-biodiversità e sicurezza alimentare, 41.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf300459b

Renna, Massimiliano, Maria Castellino, Beniamino Leoni, Vito Paradiso, et Pietro Santamaria. 2018. « Microgreens Production with Low Potassium Content for Patients with Impaired Kidney Function ». Nutrients 10 (6): 675. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10060675.

Xiao, Zhenlei, Gene E. Lester, Yaguang Luo, et Qin Wang. 2012. « Assessment of Vitamin and Carotenoid Concentrations of Emerging Food Products: Edible Microgreens ». Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 60 (31): 7644‑51. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf300459b