Dandelion Greens vs Watercress – Which is Healthier?

Our Verdict

When comparing dandelion greens to watercress, we picked the watercress.

Why?

Watercress is a well-known superfood, but dandelion greens simply blow it out of the water:

In terms of macros, dandelion greens have 7x the fiber as well as more carbs, albeit since the glycemic index is the same (zero), the carbs aren’t an issue at all. The two plants are about equal on protein, so this is a clear win for dandelions in the macros category, on the strength of all that fiber.

In the category of vitamins, dandelion greens have a lot more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9, C, E, and K, while watercress has more vitamin B5, as in, the vitamin whose name (pantothenic acid) means “from everything” due to its ubiquity. In other words, you really can’t be deficient in vitamin B5 unless you are literally starving to death. In any case, an overwhelming win for dandelions.

Looking at minerals next, dandelion greens have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, while watercress has (slightly) more selenium. Another one-sided win for dandelions.

One more category, polyphenols. We’d be here until next week if we listed all the polyphenols that dandelion greens have, but suffice it to say, dandelion greens have a total of 385.55mg/100g polyphenols, while watercress has a total of 5.05mg/100g polyphenols. Grabbing a calculator, we see that this means dandelions have more than 76x the polyphenol content that watercress does.

This all sounds very damning for watercress, but honestly, watercress really is the superfood it’s known to be! It just doesn’t look it when standing next to the highly underrated superfood that is dandelions, that’s all.

So, by all means enjoy either or both, as diversity is good, but for absolute nutritional density, the answer is quite possibly in your garden.

Want to learn more?

You might like:

21 Most Beneficial Polyphenols & What Foods Have Them

Enjoy!