I have to be straight with you here: I don’t eat arugula for the health benefits!! I eat it because it’s so yummy and spicy and because my “garden” is overgrown with it. Lucky me that I am so in love with this weed.

Arugula has some amazing properties. It is high in folate, vitamin K, potassium, calcium, iron and is high in zinc for a green. The vitamin K in arugula is K1 which is essential for blood clotting. Along with the related cruciferous vegetables Arugula is one of the highest sources.

Arugula contains one other powerful constituent, glucosinolates. When these are broken down by chewing they create isothiocyanates which have been studied for their anti-cancer properties. Sulforaphane!  Eating arugula turns the glucosnolates into sulforaphane.  This is done through enzymes released when chewing and also through digestive bacteria activity.  Not just the so-called “probiotic” bacteria but many gut bugs like E coli and even Clostridia convert gluconsinolates into sulforaphane.  I prefer to get this constituent from fresh foods because it has a short half life (four hours) so won’t be active any more in juices or most powders you can buy.

Sulforaphane has been shown in studies to stimulate cancer cell death and reduce the reproduction (mitosis) of cancer cells too. While nobody is saying at this point that arugula will cure cancer it is certainly wonderful to know that the minions of the glucosinolates are working for us in there.

So the arugula is feeing our digestive bacteria and they are converting the glucosinolates into sulforaphane for us.  What a great team!

Iron and zinc can both be hard to find on a plant-based diet so incorporating greens that have a reasonable amount of them is a good idea.  As you know veggies can only contain the nutrients available in the soil in which they were grown and arugula without zinc looks exactly the same as arugula with zinc.  So go organic or better if you can.

As a bonus arugula has a distinctive enough taste for us to build amazing recipes around it. Arugula’s flavour can range from slightly peppery to spicy to the max. I love it alone in a salad although it can be a bit much for some of my dining companions. I hope you enjoy working with this lovely green as much as I do.

Do you have any recipe ideas? Have you done something with the previously posted arugula soup to make it your own? (Click HERE for the recipe) Please let me know in the comments below.