Radish, the Overlooked Winter Vegetable: What Its Nutrition Really Offers

On the evening of 27 November 2025, as the winter vegetable season was getting under way in Bangladesh, the lifestyle desk of the news portal Jagonews24 published a feature urging readers not to pass over the radish (mula). Many people wrinkle their noses at the name, the report said, and others simply ignore it, yet research shows it to be a fairly nutritious vegetable. The writers called winter the ideal time to eat it, because that is when the freshest radishes reach the market, and they listed seven ways in which they said regular radish could help the body, from digestion to the skin, the liver and the heart.

This rewrite keeps the report's message, that the humble radish deserves a place on the plate, and checks each of its claims against food composition data, health authorities and published research available on the date of the report. Where the evidence is weaker than the original suggested, the text says so.

The Jagonews24 feature named the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Rhode Island and the National Liver Foundation as its sources. Under seven numbered headings it said that radish:

• improves digestion, because its water and fibre ease constipation and its enzymes help break down food;
• is good for the liver, because its sulphur compounds help the liver break down toxins;
• protects the heart, through a plant pigment called anthocyanin;
• helps keep blood glucose in check, being low in calories and slow to raise blood sugar;
• strengthens the body's defences, through vitamin C, folate and antioxidants;
• is good for the skin and hair, being mostly water and containing vitamin C;
• helps with weight loss, being very low in calories.

Several of these points are well supported; others rest on laboratory and animal studies, or apply to some kinds of radish and not to the long white roots sold in most Bangladeshi markets. The sections below go through them one by one.

The radish, Raphanus sativus, belongs to the Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage) family, the same family as cauliflower, cabbage, mustard and turnip. A 2019 review in the journal Nutrients by scientists of the Vegetable Research Division of South Korea's National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science describes it as a root vegetable eaten around the world as pickles, salads and curries, and notes that its leaves and sprouts are also eaten. A 2017 review in the same journal by Saleem Ali Banihani of the Jordan University of Science and Technology adds that radish skins come in many colours, red, purple, black, yellow, and white through pink, while the flesh is typically white.

Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of Bangladesh, calls mula a popular vegetable that is eaten fresh as salad, cooked with fish or other vegetables, and sometimes pickled. It is mainly a winter crop, though it can be grown to some extent in summer. Banglapedia lists Red Bombay, Mino Early and Mino Saki among the important varieties, and three varieties released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI): Tasakisan, with a long white root; Pinky, with a pinkish and more pungent root; and Druti, white and early maturing. It puts the yield at 30 to 35 tonnes per hectare.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) counts radish among the rabi, or winter, vegetables. Its Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics 2024, published in June 2025, gives the national area and production for the three most recent seasons:

• 2021-22: 66,582.78 acres, producing 321,712.76 tonnes;
• 2022-23: 67,380.38 acres, producing 340,687.06 tonnes;
• 2023-24: 66,441.99 acres, producing 376,597.15 tonnes, with an average yield of 5,668.06 kg per acre.

The same yearbook's crop calendar gives the sowing time for radish as mid-August to early October and the harvest as early January to mid-February, with 3 to 4 kg of seed needed per acre. The BBS district table records radish in all 64 districts. In 2023-24 the largest areas under the crop were in Chattogram (3,228.68 acres), Tangail (2,744.65 acres), Mymensingh (2,625 acres), Jamalpur (2,344 acres), Rajshahi (2,315 acres) and Bogura (2,280 acres).

The most relevant figures for a Bangladeshi reader come from the Food Composition Table for Bangladesh, compiled by the Institute of Nutrition and Food Science (INFS) of the University of Dhaka and published in June 2013 with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), USAID and the European Union. For 100 grams of the edible part of raw radish (mula), it gives:

• energy: 18 kilocalories;
• water: 94.3 grams;
• protein: 0.9 grams; fat: 0.1 grams; available carbohydrate: 2.5 grams;
• dietary fibre: 1.6 grams;
• calcium: 24 mg; iron: 0.4 mg; magnesium: 15 mg; phosphorus: 23 mg; potassium: 142 mg; sodium: 40 mg;
• folate: 25 micrograms; vitamin C: 17.3 mg;
• beta-carotene: only a trace.

These numbers bear out the report's central point: radish is mostly water, very low in energy, and a modest source of fibre, vitamin C and folate. They also correct two details. The water content is a little over 94 grams per 100 grams, close to but not quite the "about 95 per cent" the feature gave. And the white root contains only traces of beta-carotene, so the claim that its beta-carotene helps the hair finds no support in the table.

For comparison, the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements gives the recommended daily vitamin C intake as 90 mg for adult men and 75 mg for adult women, and the recommended folate intake as 400 micrograms of dietary folate equivalents for adults, rising to 600 micrograms in pregnancy. A serving of radish therefore contributes to these needs but cannot meet them alone.

The same INFS table lists raw radish leaves (mula shak) separately, and they are far richer in several nutrients than the root. For 100 grams of leaves it gives 32 kilocalories, 1.8 grams of protein, 2.6 grams of dietary fibre, 147 mg of calcium, 2.8 mg of iron, 260 mg of potassium, 1,870 micrograms of beta-carotene, 70 micrograms of folate and 68.9 mg of vitamin C. The Korean review reaches the same conclusion from laboratory analyses: compared with the roots, the leaves contain more protein, calcium and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), twice the total phenolic content and four times the flavonoids.

In other words, a family that throws away the green tops when it buys radish is discarding the most nutritious part. Leaves sold with the roots in Bangladeshi markets can be cooked as shak in the usual way.

The report's first claim, that radish helps digestion and eases constipation, rests on its water and fibre, and this is broadly supported. The UK's National Health Service (NHS) says that a diet rich in fibre can help digestion and prevent constipation, makes people feel fuller, and is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer. UK guidelines advise adults to eat 30 grams of fibre a day, while most adults eat only about 20 grams; the NHS suggests including plenty of vegetables with meals to close the gap. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Nutrition Source explains that the indigestible fibre in vegetables and fruit absorbs water and expands as it passes through the gut, which triggers regular bowel movements and can relieve or prevent constipation.

With 1.6 grams of fibre in 100 grams, radish is a helpful but modest fibre source; its leaves, at 2.6 grams, and pulses and whole grains supply more. Its high water content adds to the fluid in a meal.

The "special enzymes" the report mentions need a careful reading. The best-known enzyme in radish is myrosinase, which, as the next section explains, acts on the plant's own sulphur compounds and produces its sharp taste; it is not a digestive enzyme for breaking down a meal. Banihani's review does mention a compound isolated from radish, methylisogermabullone, that was found in research to stimulate movement of the small bowel, and the Korean review notes that radish extracts have long been used in folk medicine for stomach disorders and constipation. These findings help explain the traditional reputation, but no clinical trial cited in either review shows that radish reduces indigestion or acidity, so that part of the claim is not repeated here.

The hot, peppery bite of a raw radish comes from sulphur-containing compounds called glucosinolates. The Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, which lists radish among the cruciferous vegetables rich in glucosinolates, explains that in an intact plant the enzyme myrosinase is kept apart from them. When the plant's cells are damaged, by chopping or chewing, the enzyme reaches the glucosinolates and turns them into reactive compounds called isothiocyanates, which give the pungent aroma and spicy taste. Banihani's review names the main glucosinolates found in radish, including glucoraphasatin, and isothiocyanates such as sulforaphene and sulforaphane, and notes that myrosinase is present both in radish and in the bacteria of the human colon.

Cooking matters here. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, cooking cruciferous vegetables inactivates myrosinase, so fewer isothiocyanates form, although light steaming for less than five minutes preserves some of the enzyme; in cooked vegetables, gut bacteria carry out part of the conversion instead. Once absorbed, isothiocyanates are joined to glutathione in the liver and excreted in the urine.

This is the basis of the report's liver claim, and the evidence behind it is mostly from laboratories and animals. The Korean review summarises studies in which black radish extract eased chemically induced liver injury in rats, fresh radish juice reduced liver damage caused by carbon tetrachloride in albino rats, and compounds from radish roots and sprouts reduced the severity of fatty liver disease in mice. The Linus Pauling Institute says isothiocyanates may influence the enzymes that help the body break down and remove foreign substances, and that in cell and animal studies they showed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity; it also says there is insufficient evidence that isothiocyanates from vegetables lower the risk of cancer in people.

The phrase "liver-friendly vegetable", which the feature attributed to research, could not be found in the sources the report named or in the research reviews checked for this article, so it is not used here. What can be said is that radish belongs to a vegetable family whose sulphur compounds are being studied for effects on liver enzymes, and that animal results have been encouraging. People with liver disease should follow their doctor's advice on diet.

The report said that radish protects the heart through anthocyanin, a plant pigment. Anthocyanins are the red, purple and blue pigments of many fruits and vegetables, and radish does contain them, but mainly in its coloured forms. The Korean review notes that red radish has higher levels of anthocyanin, dominated by acylated pelargonidin derivatives, and Banihani's review cites a measurement of about 63.1 mg of pelargonidin in 100 grams of common red radish, roughly 11 small radishes. Of the BARI varieties named in Banglapedia, Tasakisan and Druti have white roots, while Pinky has a pinkish root.

The research on these pigments in radish is again mostly laboratory work, showing that the pigments act as antioxidants in test-tube assays. No study cited in the reviews shows that eating radish itself lowers blood pressure or keeps blood vessels flexible in people, so those specific claims are not repeated here.

The wider evidence on vegetables and the heart is stronger. The World Health Organization's healthy diet fact sheet says that high sodium intake and too little potassium contribute to high blood pressure, which raises the risk of heart disease and stroke; that most people eat too little potassium; and that potassium intake can be increased by eating fresh fruit and vegetables. Radish provides 142 mg of potassium per 100 grams and its leaves 260 mg, according to the INFS table. The Harvard Nutrition Source reports that in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial, people with high blood pressure who followed a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy products lowered their systolic pressure by about 11 mm Hg and their diastolic pressure by almost 6 mm Hg; it adds that cruciferous vegetables contributed to the lower risk of heart disease seen in large studies. Radish can be part of such a diet; it is not a treatment for heart disease.

The fourth claim, that radish helps control blood glucose and is safe for people with diabetes, has been studied more than most. Banihani's 2017 review searched the scientific literature from June 1987 to May 2017 for studies linking radish and diabetes. In studies on rats, radish sprouts, radish extracts and radish root juice lowered blood glucose; in laboratory tests, radish extracts blocked two enzymes, alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase, that break down starch and sugars in the gut. The review suggests that radish might help through antioxidant effects, effects on hormones that regulate glucose, and reduced glucose absorption.

The same review is clear about the limits. It states that almost all the research directly linking radish with diabetes is non-clinical, carried out in cells or animals, and that its conclusions require further confirmation through clinical studies in people. The report's statement that radish has a low glycaemic index could not be confirmed from the sources checked, so it is left out.

The general advice from the Harvard Nutrition Source is that non-starchy vegetables have low glycaemic loads and do not cause sharp rises in blood sugar, and the INFS table shows only 2.5 grams of available carbohydrate in 100 grams of radish. Radish can therefore fit into a diabetic meal plan, but it does not replace medicine or a diet prescribed by a doctor. People with diabetes should not change their treatment because of any food and should discuss their diet with their doctor or a registered dietitian.

The weight claim is the best supported of the seven. At 18 kilocalories per 100 grams, according to the INFS table, radish is very low in energy, and the NHS notes that fibre-rich foods make people feel fuller. The Harvard Nutrition Source reports that in long-running studies of American nurses and health professionals, people who increased their intake of fruit and vegetables over 24 years were more likely to have lost weight, while starchy vegetables such as potatoes were linked with weight gain. The report's figure of 19 kilocalories per cup could not be checked against the food tables available, so this article gives the INFS figure per 100 grams instead.

On immunity, the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements says that vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, helps the body absorb iron from plant foods, and helps the immune system work properly. It also says that, for most people, vitamin C supplements do not reduce the risk of catching a common cold, though people who take them regularly might have slightly shorter or milder colds. The report's suggestion that a little radish every day protects against winter colds and coughs therefore goes beyond the evidence and is not repeated. Folate, the other vitamin the report named, is needed, according to the NIH, to make DNA and for cells to divide.

On the skin, the NIH says the body needs vitamin C to make collagen, a protein required for wounds to heal. That supports a general link between vitamin C-rich foods and healthy skin, but none of the sources checked shows that eating radish makes skin softer or reduces rashes, or that it reduces hair loss, so these claims are left out.

How radish is prepared changes what it provides. The INFS table shows raw radish with 17.3 mg of vitamin C and 25 micrograms of folate per 100 grams, and radish boiled without salt with 9.2 mg of vitamin C and 17 micrograms of folate. Eating some radish raw, as a salad, keeps more of these vitamins and, as the Linus Pauling Institute explains, allows the plant's own myrosinase to form isothiocyanates; cooked radish in curries and with fish, as Banglapedia describes, is still a useful vegetable.

Radish pickles are a different matter when they are salty. The WHO advises adults to eat less than 5 grams of salt a day, about one teaspoon, and notes that most people eat far more. The same fact sheet advises eating at least 400 grams, or five portions, of fruit and vegetables a day, not counting potatoes and other starchy roots; always including vegetables in meals; eating raw vegetables as snacks; and choosing fresh vegetables that are in season and a variety of them. Radish in winter, together with its leaves, fits that advice well.

The Linus Pauling Institute reports no serious adverse effects of isothiocyanates from food in humans. As with any food, people with a medical condition, a special diet or a question about how radish fits their treatment should ask a doctor or a registered dietitian before making changes.

Photo: Salim Khandoker / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Institute of Nutrition and Food Science (University of Dhaka), Food Composition Table for Bangladesh (2013), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics 2024), Banglapedia, Nutrients (Banihani 2017; Manivannan and others 2019), Linus Pauling Institute (Oregon State University), US National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, UK National Health Service, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (The Nutrition Source), World Health Organization