Turnip Greens

Health Benefits
(Source: World's Healthiest Foods, George Mateljan)

Unlike some of their fellow cruciferous vegetables, turnip greens have not been the direct focus of most health-oriented research studies. However, turnip greens have sometimes been included in a longer list of cruciferous vegetables that have been lumped together and studied to determine potential types of health benefits.

Broad-Based Nutritional Support of Turnip Greens

As mentioned earlier in this profile, turnip greens achieve more ratings of "excellent" in our food rating system than any of their fellow cruciferous vegetables. Included in their 10 "excellent" ratings are fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants; turnip greens also contain a wide variety of phytonutrients including carotenoids, flavonoids, and glucosinolates. If you combine the "excellent" nutritional ratings achieved by turnip greens with their "very good" and "good" ratings, you end up with 20 total ratings, including high scores for fiber, protein, and omega-3 fats. In short, turnip greens will provide you with measurable nutrient benefits in every major category of nutritional science.

Glucosinolate Benefits of Turnip Greens

Like all of its fellow cruciferous vegetables studied thus far, turnips (including both their leaves and their roots) are sources of unique sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates. In our article Feeling Great with Cruciferous Vegetables you can get fuller details about glucosinolates and their link not only to cancer prevention but also to support of detoxification processes in our cells. Recent studies on turnip greens, however, suggest that this particular cruciferous vegetable may have a somewhat unusual glucosinolate profile in comparison with other "crucifers" like broccoli or cauliflower or collard greens. According to these recent studies, the most plentiful glucosinolate in turnip greens turns out to be gluconapin, followed by a second glucosinolate called glucobrassicanapin. These particular glucosinolates give scientists reasons to think about turnip greens (and turnips) as being more closely linked to Brassica family plants like rapeseed (which is the source of canola oil) than to broccoli and other members of this vegetable group. It's not yet clear how this unique glucosinolate profile in turnip greens (and turnip roots) translates into specific health benefits, but we suspect that turnip greens will eventually be shown to provide unique health support owing to this factor, giving us yet another reason to include this specific cruciferous vegetable in our meal plan.

Antioxidant Benefits of Turnip Greens

Since turnip greens rank in our Top 5 Foods for vitamin E, our Top 10 Foods for beta-carotene, our Top 15 Foods for manganese, and our Top 20 Foods for vitamin C, we end up with a pretty impressive contribution of antioxidant nutrients from this vegetable since each nutrient above has been extensively studied and is known to be critical for helping us lower our risk of unwanted oxidative stress and the chronic diseases (for example, atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis) that have been linked to excessive oxidative stress.

In the case of vitamin E and turnip greens, it is interesting to note that beta-tocopherol and beta-tocotrienol appear to be the major forms of vitamin E in the leaves of this cruciferous vegetable. While all forms of vitamin E found in food provide us with nutritional support, it is generally helpful for us to consume foods that provide us with vitamin E in a variety of different forms, including both tocopherols and tocotrienols. Turnip greens clearly rise to the occasion in this regard!

Research on carotenoid antioxidants in turnips greens is especially strong. Beta-carotene and lutein are two carotenoids that have been carefully studied in the leaves of this plant, and we know that they are present in plentiful amounts in both upper and lower leaves. (In some plants, due to the angle of sunlight and the positioning of the leaves, the lower leaves end up with substantially lower concentrations of some carotenoids, including lutein and beta-carotene. But this situation does not appear to be the case with the turnip plant and its greens.) The antioxidant flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol have also been identified in fresh turnip greens.

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