Sprouts are tiny, baby plants that are just beginning their journey into the familiar veggies we know. Yet, at this stage the sprout is packed with high concentrations of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and more, which it will need to grow into a mature plant.

Eating sprouts, therefore, is said to be among the healthiest ways to consume your vegetables, because you get higher concentrations of nutrients, and, because the sprout is still alive and growing when it’s consumed, it is a raw food, full of live nutrition (which cooked vegetables do not provide).

“Sprouts are the elixir of life,” says Angela Elliott, a practitioner in holistic modalities and author of Alive in 5: Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes.

Of note, while a head of broccoli from the supermarket will degrade in nutritional quality the longer it sits in your fridge, broccoli sprouts will continue to grow and gain nutrients, within reason, until you eat them. Further, gram for gram, broccoli sprouts have more nutrients than mature broccoli, so eating a small amount of sprouts may actually be better for you than eating a large amount of mature broccoli.

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