Small leaves.
Serious science.
We started growing microgreens because the research on them is genuinely exciting — and because almost nobody in this country is eating enough plants. This page lays out what the science shows, where it is strongest, and how we read it. No hedging, and no overselling either.
Just 17% of UK adults
manage five a day.
That figure is from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, and it has fallen sharply — down from around a third only a few years earlier. It is not a knowledge problem. Everyone already knows vegetables are good for them. It is a time, shopping and effort problem. Microgreens are our answer to that gap: the most nutrient-concentrated stage of the plants you already know you should be eating, in a portion small enough that you will actually manage it on a Tuesday night in February.
30–45 days
45–90+ days
Caught at exactly
the right moment.
In 2012, USDA and University of Maryland researchers analysed 25 varieties of commercially grown microgreens and compared them against published values for the same plants at maturity. Every variety tested came out ahead on at least one nutrient. Figures below are per gram of fresh weight, for red cabbage.
What happened when animals ate them daily
Mice on a high-fat diet were fed red cabbage microgreens — the same variety that goes into Big Shot — for eight weeks. Circulating LDL fell 34%. Liver cholesterol esters fell 65.5%. Hepatic triglycerides fell 23%. Diet-induced weight gain was 17% lower than the control group.
This is an animal study, and animal results don't automatically translate to people. But it is a well-designed trial, on the exact plant we grow, and the effect sizes are not small.
Huang et al., J. Agric. Food Chem., 2016
Good enough for space agencies
NASA has been growing fresh crops aboard the International Space Station since 2014, and microgreens are among the plants under active study for long-duration missions. The reasoning is worth sitting with, because it is exactly ours.
Vitamins in pre-packaged food degrade over months in orbit. Crew space, water and time are the scarcest resources there are. So the question becomes: what delivers the most nutrition per gram, per litre of water, per day of growing? Agencies with no marketing incentive whatsoever keep arriving at the same answer.
NASA Veggie programme; ISS crop research
Sulforaphane: one of the most studied compounds in nutrition science
Brassicas — broccoli, radish, kale, cabbage — carry glucoraphanin, which converts to sulforaphane the moment the leaf is chopped or chewed. Johns Hopkins found young broccoli sprouts held 10–100 times more glucoraphanin per gram than mature heads, and that finding launched three decades of research.
Sulforaphane is now in human trials for prostate cancer prevention, prediabetes and cardiometabolic health. Results in people are still mixed and mostly early-stage — but very few food compounds attract this level of serious clinical attention.
Fahey et al., PNAS, 1997; ongoing clinical literature
95.6%
stuck with it, every single day, for the full trial — adherence most nutrition studies would envy.
In 2025, healthy middle-aged and older adults ate two cups of red cabbage or beet microgreens daily for a fortnight. Retention was high, compliance hit 95.6%, and they were comfortably tolerated. Adherence is where almost every healthy-eating plan falls apart — this one didn't. The study was designed to answer whether daily microgreens are realistic rather than to prove a clinical outcome, and on that question the answer came back a clear yes.
How we read
the evidence.
We would rather tell you where the science is solid and where it is still early than quote a big number and hope you never check.
Where is the evidence strongest?
Nutrient density. That microgreens carry substantially more vitamins and carotenoids per gram than the same plants at maturity is well established, repeatedly measured, and not seriously disputed. It is laboratory analysis rather than opinion.
Where is it still early?
Human clinical outcomes. The animal and mechanistic work is genuinely promising, and the compounds involved are well characterised — but large, long-term human trials on microgreens specifically have not been done yet. Anyone telling you otherwise is ahead of the evidence.
Does the 40× figure apply to everything?
No, and we would rather say so. The 2012 study found a range of roughly 4–40 times across 25 varieties and four nutrient groups. The headline 40× refers to vitamin E in red cabbage. The honest version — every variety tested beat its mature counterpart on something — is a better story anyway.
What won't you claim?
That microgreens treat, cure or prevent any disease. They are food. What they do is make it realistic to eat more plants, more often, which is a goal with about as much evidence behind it as anything in nutrition. If you're managing a health condition, talk to your GP or a registered dietitian.
Read it
yourself.
Every figure on this page traces to a peer-reviewed source or official national data. Links go to the original papers, not to somebody's summary of them.
The research only counts
if you actually eat them.
Nutrient density means nothing if the greens sit forgotten in the fridge. Pick the format that fits how you genuinely live — fresh on everything, a 10-second daily shot, or powder that travels.
Find your match →