Watercress: Benefits, Nutrition, How to Eat It & Recipes

Dr. Josh Axe · Free quiz

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Watercress, the peppery little leaf from the cabbage family, is one of the greens I count among the very best you can eat, right alongside broccoli sprouts.567 Calorie for calorie it's one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables there is, with about 4 calories and 71% of your daily vitamin K in a raw cup, and you can enjoy it raw in a salad or sandwich or wilted into a soup, an omelet or a stir-fry in the last minute of cooking.81

If you've sat in traffic, breathed wildfire smoke or eaten food cooked at high heat, your body has had chemicals like benzene and acrolein to clear, and it clears them every day without your noticing.2 Your liver attaches them to glutathione, its own detox molecule, and sends them out in your urine. That's the system watercress feeds, because when you chew a leaf, it releases a compound called PEITC that helps switch on the enzymes doing that work.29

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What is watercress?

Pick up a bunch at the store and you'll find small, rounded, dark-green leaves on crisp, hollow stems. Bite into a sprig and the flavor starts fresh and green before a mustardy heat builds, and you can taste its kinship with the other cruciferous vegetables, from radishes to horseradish and wasabi. Watercress is an aquatic perennial, native to western Asia, Europe, India and Africa, and farmers have long grown it in ponds, lakes and slow-moving streams and canals, though today it's cultivated far beyond those regions.6

A short history of watercress

Picture Farringdon Market in London in 1851, where the journalist Henry Mayhew found watercress sellers, many of them very old or very young, buying their bunches by five or six in the morning. Working people were the main customers, he wrote, and bricklayers heading home to breakfast at eight bought most of them, so for the city's laborers, watercress was a breakfast green.10 Out in Hampshire, the railway that opened through Alresford in 1865 let growers rush this highly perishable crop to market, and the heritage line that volunteers reopened there in 1977, four years after it closed, runs today as the Watercress Line.11

Its medicinal history runs much deeper, and the traditional medicine of Iran, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Mauritius made extensive use of watercress, with people in Iran drinking it in juices and eating it in salads.126 Several of those traditional uses, for the lungs, blood sugar and the kidneys, are the same ones researchers are now testing, as you'll see below.

Watercress nutrition facts (per cup)

Calculated from USDA FoodData Central FDC ID 170068 (watercress, raw) at the entry's 1-cup weight of 34 grams; % Daily Value uses FDA adult label values.113

The standout on that list is vitamin K, which your liver needs to make the proteins that clot your blood, and some studies suggest it helps keep bones strong as you get older.14 Watercress is also rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow pigments your eyes collect, with 1,962 micrograms of the two in a cup, plus beta-carotene.1 All of these are fat-soluble, so a drizzle of olive oil on your watercress helps you absorb them.

It even carries a trace of plant omega-3. In an Australian analysis of 11 green vegetables, watercress had the most total fat of the group, 372 milligrams per 100 grams, and the most of one plant omega-3, while USDA lists 7.8 milligrams of alpha-linolenic acid in a cup.151

Few foods can match it calorie for calorie, and in a nutrient-density ranking of 47 raw fruits and vegetables published in the CDC's journal Preventing Chronic Disease, which averaged 17 nutrients per 100 calories, watercress was the only one to reach the top score of 100, ahead of Chinese cabbage (91.99), chard (89.27), beet greens (87.08) and spinach (86.43).8 Because the ranking works per calorie and a cup has so few, the per-cup amounts in the table are modest apart from vitamin K, and the score counts only nutrients, so it can't reflect PEITC, lutein or nitrate, the plant compounds behind much of what follows.8

Watercress vs. kale

Watercress and kale are both cruciferous greens, and each one brings something the other doesn't.

Per cup, raw, from USDA FoodData Central (watercress 34 g, chopped; kale 21 g).116

Cup for cup, they carry nearly the same vitamin K, and watercress does it at half the calories and brings more lutein and potassium, while kale brings more vitamin C, calcium, fiber and folate.116 Per 100 grams, kale is the denser food, partly because it holds less water (89.6% against 95.1%), and per calorie, watercress comes out ahead.1168 So eat both, and keep going from there, because I want you eating a variety: some broccoli, some cauliflower, some kale and a lot of different vegetables on your plate.5

How watercress works in your body

Watercress keeps its protective chemistry in separate compartments inside each leaf, a little like the two parts of a glow stick that only light up when you bend it and they mix. When you chew, the leaf's cells break open, an enzyme called myrosinase meets a compound called gluconasturtiin, and together they release phenethyl isothiocyanate, or PEITC, the compound researchers think does most of watercress's work in your body.2 From your first bite to your cells, the chain runs like this:

Watercress carries more than one of these compounds, too, and in lab tests two of its other isothiocyanates switched on the same protective enzymes at a fraction of the concentration PEITC needed, 0.2 and 0.5 micromolar against 5.18 And because the reaction starts when you chew, raw watercress delivers far more of them than cooked, though your gut bacteria still free some from cooked watercress, too.17 Your liver was already built to tag these chemicals and send them on their way, and every bite of watercress gives it more of the signal it uses to step that work up.

Watercress benefits

Is watercress good for your kidneys and liver?

Watercress for your liver and fatty liver

Your body absorbs vitamins D, A, E and K with the help of bile, and the amount you take in often comes down to how well your bile is flowing, which is where bitter greens come in.30

When I'm working with a patient whose vitamin D levels are still low even though they've been supplementing, I know right away that it's a gallbladder and liver issue, where their body doesn't have enough bile or bile flow. I might have them add bitter foods like artichokes and more of the bitter greens, and that alone will start to improve their vitamin D levels on blood work.30 Watercress is also one of the leafy greens in my Breast Cancer Support Protocol, chosen there for liver support and hormone clearance.31

Chinese medicine describes the same idea in its own terms, using bitter greens to clear heat and stagnation from the liver.324 It also treats spring as the liver's season, when the liver and gallbladder are most active in detoxification, and that's why I tell people that spring is the time to start eating more things that are green.33

Bitter greens have a long history at the table, too. At the first Passover, God told Israel to eat the lamb "roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it" (Exodus 12:8).34 Scripture doesn't name the plants, and the bitter greens I list to eat in that spirit include lettuce, endive, chicory, horseradish, dandelion, arugula and watercress.30

For a fatty liver, start with the basics of liver function and put bitter greens like watercress on your plate every day, along with the other cruciferous vegetables, which I call hero foods for your liver.28 No trial has tested watercress for fatty liver in people yet, but in rats a watercress extract improved blood fats on a high-fat diet, protected the liver after its bile duct was tied off and guarded it against an acetaminophen overdose.353637

Watercress for your kidneys

As a home remedy, watercress leaves have long been used as a diuretic and a depurative, an old word for a blood cleanser.6 Two placebo-controlled trials in Iran tested 500 milligrams a day of watercress extract for 4 weeks in people on hemodialysis, whose kidneys can no longer do their job alone. In one, with 46 people, MDA, a marker of oxidative damage, and blood urea nitrogen fell in the extract group while its antioxidant enzyme SOD rose.38 In the other, where 45 of 46 people finished, protein carbonyl, a marker of damaged proteins, fell from 20.33 to 15.06 with the extract, significantly more than with placebo.39 In rats, the extract also protected the kidneys from damage caused by the antibiotic gentamicin.40

Watercress is a gentle, low-calorie green for everyday eating, with 112 milligrams of potassium in a cup, 2% of the daily value, and 330 milligrams in a 100-gram bowl, about 3 cups. Low-potassium food lists use a cutoff of under 200 milligrams a serving, so a cup of watercress fits comfortably on a renal diet plate.11329

How to eat watercress: raw, wilted and in soup

Buying and storing. Look for crisp, dark-green bunches with no yellow or slimy leaves, and choose organic when you can, since you eat the whole leaf. Buy cultivated watercress from a grocer or farm you trust (the safety section below explains why wild watercress should be cooked). At home, stand the stems in a glass of water in the refrigerator, loosely covered, and use it within a few days.

Rinsing. Swish the bunch in a bowl of cold water, lift it out, change the water and repeat, then spin or pat it dry.

Raw or cooked. You can eat watercress both ways through the week, and raw gives you the most PEITC, as the step diagram above shows,17 while its peppery leaves are at their best in a salad. In spring and summer, I like to make a salad at home with apple cider vinegar and some sprouts, maybe some hummus with it, or olive oil and balsamic vinegar as the dressing,28 and a big handful of watercress fits right in.

Kale, cabbage, arugula, radishes, watercress and bok choy are some of the best cruciferous vegetables, and I highly recommend that you steam them.41 Gentle cooking like steaming or sautéing can increase the bioavailability of certain nutrients, and if you have digestive issues, opt for steamed vegetables over a big salad, since they're gentler on your digestive system.3242 With watercress, a minute of heat is enough: stir it into soup at the very end, or sauté it for 30 seconds with garlic, so it wilts but stays bright green.

Watercress recipes

These five recipes keep watercress front and center. Four are longtime favorites, the forbidden rice salad, the soup, the stir-fry and the cucumber salad, made with bone broth, coconut milk and good oils, and the fifth is the classic watercress sandwich, made with eggs and avocado.

Watercress and black rice salad

Nutty black rice, sometimes called forbidden rice, holds up well under a peppery green. Cook the rice ahead, and dress the watercress just before you serve it so the leaves stay crisp.

Cauliflower watercress soup

This soup takes watercress the way many cooks love it, blended into something creamy, and it gets its body from cauliflower and its richness from coconut milk. If you like a warmer spice, our curried cauliflower soup takes the same base in another direction.

Watercress and chicken stir-fry

Watercress takes the place of spinach or bok choy here and goes in last, so it wilts in the pan's heat without losing its color or its bite.

Cucumber watercress salad

Cool cucumber and peppery watercress balance each other in this quick side, a twist on a simple cucumber salad that goes with fish, chicken or eggs.

Watercress egg salad sandwich

Creamy eggs and peppery watercress pair naturally in this sandwich, where mashed avocado stands in for most of the mayonnaise and the watercress goes in a thick layer so you taste it in every bite.

How much watercress should you eat a day?

For a sense of scale, the 8-week trials of fresh watercress used 85 grams a day, about 2½ cups chopped, and the drink in the 188-adult trial worked out to roughly 4 cups of fresh leaves a day.31921 Watercress counts toward your greens alongside spinach, arugula, kale and the rest, and rotating them through your week gives you a wider mix of nutrients and plant compounds.

Watercress side effects and safety

Watercress is a safe everyday food for nearly everyone, and a few practical points help you enjoy it well.

Buy cultivated, and cook wild watercress. Watercress picked from streams can carry the larvae of Fasciola, a liver fluke found where sheep and cattle graze, and the CDC's advice for avoiding it is not to eat raw watercress or other freshwater plants.43 U.S. cases are rare, and most were picked up abroad; one man in Hawai'i was infected after eating raw watercress he gathered from the wild.4344 Commercial watercress has been involved too: in 2002, an outbreak of 18 cases in northern France was traced to one grower's watercress, and two English E. coli outbreaks in 2013 were linked to watercress.4546 Buy from a grocer or farm you trust, rinse it well, and cook any wild-picked or uncertain watercress through rather than eating it raw.

If you take warfarin. Interaction check: Moderate. A cup has 85 micrograms of vitamin K, which works against warfarin.147 You don't need to avoid watercress. Keep your intake of it and other greens steady from week to week, and tell the doctor who manages your INR before a big change.4748

Other medicines. Large servings, extracts and juices can also change how your liver handles a few medicines; in a study of 10 volunteers, a single 50-gram serving of blended watercress slowed the clearance of the muscle relaxant chlorzoxazone.4950 If you take a medicine with a narrow dose range, keep your watercress intake steady.

Low thyroid. Eat more of your watercress wilted or in soup than in big raw juices or smoothies, since my Hypothyroidism Protocol has you cook cruciferous vegetables to deactivate goitrogens.51

A sensitive stomach. In the drink trial, about 1 in 10 people had nausea or extra gas from the concentrated drink.2 With fresh watercress, start with a cup and build up.

Pregnancy. During pregnancy, enjoy watercress as a food, cultivated and rinsed or cooked, and skip extracts and concentrated juices, which haven't been studied.

Potassium. If you've been told to limit potassium, count a cup at 112 milligrams, or 330 milligrams per 100 grams.1

The bottom line

Watercress: frequently asked questions

References

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Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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