Food Is Medicine: what happens before the first bite

By Lindsay F. Springer, Ph.D., Director of Plants, Nutrition & Digital Agriculture at Gardyn

The concept of Food Is Medicine is often discussed in terms of dietary patterns: increasing fruit and vegetable intake, improving dietary diversity, or replacing highly processed foods with whole foods. These are important objectives. However, from the perspective of food science and plant biology, nutritional quality is influenced by a series of decisions that occur well before food is consumed.

This is something I think about every day in my role as Director of Plants, Nutrition & Digital Agriculture at Gardyn.

My team is responsible for selecting the plants that become part of the Gardyn portfolio. That means we are constantly evaluating far more than whether a plant can simply grow indoors. We ask whether it thrives in the Gardyn environment, whether it produces reliably, whether it tastes exceptional, and whether it offers something genuinely distinctive to the person growing it.

Most importantly, we look for plants that reflect the best nature has to offer: remarkable flavor, color, diversity, nutritional characteristics, and phytochemistry.

That process has reinforced something I learned early in my career as a food scientist:

A vegetable is not simply a vegetable.

Its chemistry is shaped by its genetics. Its environment influences how that genetic potential is expressed. Its composition continues to change as it develops, and then changes again after harvest.

For that reason, I find it useful to frame the Food Is Medicine conversation around three questions:

What do you grow?

How do you grow it?

How and when do you eat it?

Together, these questions provide a practical framework for understanding how plant biology, food chemistry, and food preparation converge to influence nutritional quality.

Key takeaways

• Nutritional quality is shaped long before a meal. Cultivar genetics, growing environment and time from harvest each influence what is actually on the plate.
• Plant family, species and cultivar all affect phytochemical composition. A vegetable is not simply a vegetable.
• Red and purple lettuces accumulate anthocyanins that pale-green cultivars largely do not, with measurable differences in total phenolic content.
• Light spectrum, intensity and duration influence secondary metabolism, and no single spectrum maximizes every quality trait at once.
• Harvest is not a biological endpoint. Harvested tissue keeps respiring, and enzymatic activity and senescence continue.
• Vitamin C is particularly sensitive to storage time. Minerals and fiber are stable.
• Developmental stage is itself a nutritional variable, and home growing lets you control it directly.

What You Grow

The first determinant is the plant itself.

Plants synthesize a wide range of primary and secondary metabolites, including carotenoids, phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, glucosinolates, betalains, and volatile compounds. Many of these compounds serve functions within the plant, including defense, signaling, pigmentation, stress response, and attraction of pollinators. They are also of substantial interest in human nutrition because of their biological activity and contribution to dietary phytochemical diversity.

Importantly, these compounds are not distributed uniformly across the plant kingdom. Plant family, species, and cultivar all influence phytochemical composition.

That is why plant selection is one of the most important, and one of the most enjoyable, parts of my team’s work.

When we evaluate a new crop for Gardyn, we are not simply asking, "Will it grow?"

We are asking:

Does it grow beautifully in the system?

Does it deliver a flavor worth getting excited about?

Does it offer a distinctive color, texture, aroma, or culinary use?

And does it add something meaningful to the nutritional and botanical diversity of the portfolio?

The goal is not simply to build a long catalog of plants. It is to build a portfolio in which each plant earns its place.

Brassicas as a Case Study in Plant Family Selection

The Brassicaceae family provides a particularly useful example. Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, bok choy, mustard greens, and arugula all belong to this group and are characterized by their production of sulfur-containing compounds known as glucosinolates.

When plant tissue is disrupted through chopping or mastication, glucosinolates can interact with the enzyme myrosinase, producing a range of breakdown products including isothiocyanates. [1,2] One of the most extensively studied of these compounds is sulforaphane, which is derived from the glucosinolate glucoraphanin and has been investigated for its effects on cellular defense pathways, including Nrf2 signaling. [2,3]

This chemistry is relevant because it demonstrates that plant selection is not simply a matter of choosing a vegetable category. Different plant families bring distinct metabolic profiles to the diet.

At Gardyn, this is one reason we place value on breadth within plant families. The Brassica portfolio can include familiar crops such as kale and cauliflower as well as less conventional options such as Tokyo Bekana, a loose-headed Asian cabbage with tender leaves that can be used similarly to lettuce. Related greens such as tatsoi and watercress extend that range further.

I particularly like plants such as Tokyo Bekana because they make an important nutritional concept more practical. Rather than asking someone to add another serving of steamed broccoli to dinner, we can introduce a tender Brassica that works in a salad, sandwich, wrap, or stir-fry.

That is exactly what I want our plant portfolio to do: make biologically interesting plants easier, and more enjoyable, to eat.

Herbs as Concentrated Sources of Phytochemicals

Culinary herbs are another underutilized component of dietary diversity.

Although herbs are generally consumed in smaller amounts than leafy vegetables, many contain high concentrations of phenolic compounds and volatile secondary metabolites. Their contribution to a meal should therefore not be evaluated only on the basis of serving size.

A study by Ninfali and colleagues examined the antioxidant capacity of vegetables, spices, and culinary herbs commonly associated with Mediterranean dietary patterns. The authors reported that adding only 1.5% fresh lemon balm or marjoram by weight increased the measured antioxidant capacity of a salad by approximately 150% and 200%, respectively. [4]

This does not imply that antioxidant-capacity assays directly predict clinical outcomes. It does, however, demonstrate that a relatively small addition of aromatic herbs can substantially alter the phytochemical composition of a meal.

This is one of the reasons herbs occupy such an important place in the Gardyn portfolio, and why we have written separately about anti-inflammatory herbs worth growing at home.

Our team does not think of basil, mint, cilantro, parsley, dill, thyme, or lemon balm as decorative additions. We think of them as highly functional plants that can transform both the sensory quality and botanical diversity of a meal.

It is also why we offer multiple varieties within a single herb category. We currently offer six different types of basil, not because six basils are necessary, but because each offers a different combination of flavor, aroma, color, and culinary potential.

That diversity matters.

If a Gardyner has six ways to use basil instead of one, herbs become part of everyday eating rather than something purchased for one recipe and forgotten in the refrigerator. Storing herbs properly helps with the same problem.

Cultivar Selection Matters

Plant family and species are only part of the equation. Cultivar selection can also produce substantial differences in composition.

Lettuce provides a clear example.

Red- and purple-pigmented lettuces accumulate anthocyanins, whereas pale-green cultivars generally contain much lower concentrations of these pigments. Peer-reviewed comparisons among lettuce types have shown significant cultivar-dependent differences in total phenolic content and antioxidant activity, with red-leaf cultivars frequently exhibiting higher values than iceberg or green-leaf types.

Breen, a mini red romaine cultivar grown on Gardyn, illustrates this visually and biochemically. Its burgundy coloration reflects anthocyanin accumulation. Research conducted specifically on ‘Breen’ has demonstrated that light quality can alter anthocyanin content, ascorbic acid concentration, pigmentation, growth, and sensory characteristics. [6]

This is the kind of plant that captures exactly what we look for when building the Gardyn portfolio.

It grows beautifully.

It has excellent visual appeal.

It delivers flavor and texture.

And its pigmentation reflects a meaningful phytochemical characteristic.

The implication is important: cultivar genetics establish a metabolic potential, but the growing environment can influence the extent to which that potential is expressed.

Bull’s Blood beet provides a second example. Its dark red-purple foliage is associated with betalain pigments, particularly betacyanins. Beets are unusual in that their characteristic red pigmentation is derived from betalains rather than anthocyanins. Other less familiar greens such as amaranth, sorrel and purslane extend that chemical range in different directions again.

For us, a plant like Bull’s Blood is compelling because it performs on several levels at once: it is visually striking, highly usable as a leafy green, distinct in flavor, and chemically different from many of the other greens in the portfolio.

That combination is intentional.

The broader principle is that cultivar selection can be purposeful. If two plants can be grown with similar effort but differ meaningfully in pigmentation, flavor, texture, or phytochemical composition, there is value in selecting the variety that offers more. This is a different question from nutrient density versus calorie density, though the two are related.

How You Grow It

Selecting excellent genetics is only the first step.

The next question is whether we can create the conditions that allow that plant to perform at its best.

This is another major part of my team’s work.

A plant may be nutritionally interesting in theory, but if it performs poorly in the Gardyn environment, develops off-flavors, struggles under indoor conditions, or produces inconsistently, it is not the right fit for the portfolio.

We therefore evaluate the interaction between the plant and the system, not just the plant in isolation.

Genetics define potential, but plant phenotype and composition are strongly influenced by the environment.

Plants continuously integrate signals related to light, water, mineral nutrition, temperature, humidity, and developmental stage. These factors influence growth, morphology, photosynthesis, and secondary metabolism.

Light as Both Energy and Signal

Light is essential for photosynthesis, but its role extends beyond energy capture.

Plants detect different wavelengths through multiple classes of photoreceptors. These signaling pathways can influence leaf expansion, pigmentation, flowering, and the synthesis of secondary metabolites.

Controlled-environment studies have demonstrated that light spectrum, intensity, and duration can influence anthocyanins, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, glucosinolates, and other metabolites. [7]

The effects are highly crop- and compound-specific; there is no single spectrum that maximizes all aspects of nutritional quality simultaneously.

This is an important distinction.

The value of controlled-environment agriculture is not that one lighting formula can universally "increase nutrition." Rather, it is that environmental conditions can be managed reproducibly and studied systematically.

Gardyn’s custom LED system is designed to provide a broad, controlled spectrum that supports photosynthesis, plant development, pigmentation, and productive indoor growth. We have looked more closely at how hydroponic and soil environments differ elsewhere.

From my perspective as both a food scientist and someone responsible for plant performance, this matters because we are not simply trying to keep a plant alive.

We are trying to help it become the version of itself that we selected it for in the first place.

If we select a red lettuce for its pigmentation, we want that pigmentation to develop.

If we select an herb for exceptional aroma, we want the plant to produce that sensory experience.

If we select a fruiting crop for flavor, we want the growing environment to support the development of that flavor.

Research on indoor-grown leafy greens continues to show that lighting strategies can influence both biomass and quality-related traits, including phenolics, flavonoids, vitamin C, nitrate concentration, and mineral composition.

Root-Zone Nutrition

The root environment is equally important.

Plants require essential mineral nutrients for virtually every aspect of metabolism and development. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, manganese, zinc, and other elements contribute to structural tissues, enzyme function, chlorophyll synthesis, energy metabolism, and cellular regulation.

In hydroponic production, nutrient availability must therefore be carefully managed because the grower is directly responsible for supplying the mineral environment that soil would otherwise partially buffer. Whether that changes the nutrition of the resulting produce is a separate question we have addressed in hydroponic versus conventional produce.

Gardyn Plant Food and HydroBoost are designed to support that root-zone environment while simplifying nutrient management for the user.

The scientific principle is straightforward: a plant cannot realize its genetic potential if the environmental inputs necessary for normal growth are limiting.

Continuous Environmental Management

Plant requirements also change over time.

A newly germinated seedling, a mature leafy green, and a fruiting pepper are at very different physiological stages. Their developmental priorities and resource demands are not static.

Kelby, Gardyn’s AI-powered growing assistant, adds a continuous management layer by monitoring system conditions and helping adjust the growing environment over time.

From a plant-science perspective, this is important because plant phenotype emerges from the interaction of genetics, environment, and developmental stage.

The relevant framework is:

Genotype × Environment × Development

This interaction ultimately influences growth, morphology, flavor, pigmentation, and metabolic composition.

For my team, this is where plant selection and digital agriculture come together.

We are not only asking which plants belong on Gardyn. We are also asking how the system can best support those plants once they are there.

How and When You Eat It

The third component begins at harvest.

From a food-science perspective, one of the most important misconceptions about fresh produce is that harvest represents a biological endpoint.

It does not.

Harvested plant tissue remains metabolically active. Cellular respiration continues. Enzymatic reactions continue. Membrane integrity changes over time. Reactive oxygen species are generated and managed. Pigments are degraded or transformed. Senescence progresses.

The difference is that harvested tissue has been separated from the intact plant systems that supported it during growth.

This transition is the foundation of postharvest physiology, and it is why eating at harvest is different.

Postharvest Metabolism and Tissue Senescence

Postharvest science is largely concerned with slowing the biological processes that lead to quality deterioration.

Cooling, humidity control, modified-atmosphere packaging, and other technologies are used because plant tissues remain active after harvest.

Fresh-cut produce introduces an additional layer of complexity. Cutting physically damages cells and activates wound-response pathways.

Studies in lettuce have shown that wounding can induce changes in reactive oxygen species, membrane integrity, phenolic metabolism, browning, senescence, and programmed cell-death-associated processes. [9,10]

These responses are not simply cosmetic. They are manifestations of active plant metabolism occurring after harvest.

Nutrient Stability During Storage

Nutrients also differ in their postharvest stability.

Vitamin C is particularly sensitive to oxidation and provides a useful example of how storage time can influence composition. We have examined this directly in spinach, and looked at folate degradation in leafy greens as a parallel case.

Dewhirst and colleagues examined ascorbate retention in spinach and other salad leaves during washing and storage. All of the tested leaves lost ascorbate during storage, with lettuce showing particularly substantial relative losses. [11]

Similarly, a study evaluating vegetables during storage, preparation, and food-service distribution reported cumulative vitamin C losses ranging from approximately 33% to 71%, depending on the vegetable and handling conditions. [12]

These findings should not be interpreted as evidence that stored vegetables lack nutritional value. They do demonstrate, however, that time and postharvest handling can influence nutrient retention.

This is one of the aspects of Gardyn that I find most compelling from a food-science perspective.

My team can spend months identifying the right plant, studying how it performs, and ensuring it develops the flavor and quality we expect.

The Gardyner then has the opportunity to harvest that plant at home, from a Gardyn Home or Gardyn Studio, and eat it almost immediately.

A vegetable can move from living plant to plate in seconds rather than moving through harvest, packing, transportation, warehousing, retail display, home refrigeration, and eventual consumption.

The scientific benefit is not that postharvest deterioration is eliminated entirely. It is that the postharvest interval can be dramatically reduced.

Freshness and Flavor

Postharvest changes also influence flavor.

Basil is a useful model because much of its sensory character is determined by volatile compounds, including linalool, eugenol, cineole, and other aromatic metabolites.

Studies have shown that basil’s volatile profile changes during storage and that temperature, duration, and cultivar can all affect aroma chemistry. [13] Postharvest storage can also influence polyphenol concentration and antioxidant properties. [14]

This connection between freshness and sensory quality is nutritionally important for a practical reason: foods that taste better are more likely to be eaten consistently.

This is why taste is not a secondary consideration in our plant-selection process.

A plant can have an interesting nutritional profile, but if it does not taste good, it is unlikely to become part of someone’s routine.

For our team, nutrition and sensory quality are inseparable.

We want a Gardyner to harvest a basil leaf, crush it between their fingers, and immediately understand why that plant earned a place in the portfolio.

Developmental Stage as a Nutritional Variable

Harvest timing also determines developmental stage.

Microgreens, baby greens, and mature leaves differ in physiology and composition. These stages should not be assumed to be nutritionally equivalent.

El-Nakhel and colleagues compared microgreen, baby-leaf, and mature stages across lettuce cultivars and reported that ascorbic acid and phenolic concentrations were approximately 42% and 79% higher, respectively, at earlier developmental stages than in mature plants. [15]

The effect varies by cultivar and nutrient, so it would be incorrect to conclude that earlier harvest is universally superior.

The more important conclusion is that developmental stage is itself a nutritional variable.

Home growing allows the consumer to control that variable directly. A crop can be harvested as a microgreen, baby leaf, or fully mature plant depending on culinary preference and intended use.

Preparation Also Influences Plant Chemistry

The final stage occurs during preparation.

Brassicas again provide a useful example. Chopping and chewing disrupt plant tissues and facilitate contact between glucosinolates and myrosinase, affecting isothiocyanate formation.

Cooking can subsequently influence glucosinolate retention, enzyme activity, and the formation and bioavailability of downstream compounds. [1,16]

This reinforces a broader point: the composition of plant foods is dynamic from seed selection through preparation.

A More Complete Framework for Food Is Medicine

Food Is Medicine is often framed primarily as a question of dietary choice.

Food science suggests that the conversation can be broader.

The nutritional characteristics of fresh produce reflect a chain of biological and environmental decisions:

What you grow determines the genetic and phytochemical potential.

How you grow it influences how that potential is expressed.

How and when you eat it determines developmental stage, postharvest exposure, and preparation-related changes.

This is where I believe Gardyn has an important role to play.

My team’s responsibility begins at the front end of that continuum: identifying plants that thrive in the Gardyn system, taste exceptional, and represent the extraordinary diversity that exists in nature. That work shows up in the plant library and in the yCubes a Gardyner chooses each season.

The Gardyn system then helps support those plants as they develop.

And ultimately, the Gardyner determines the final step: when to harvest them and how quickly they move from living plant to plate.

That creates a remarkably short connection between plant genetics and the person eating the food.

Gardyn does not turn a vegetable into a pharmaceutical, nor does home growing replace evidence-based dietary guidance.

What it does provide is greater control over the biological journey of food, from the cultivar selected, to the environment in which it grows, to its developmental stage at harvest, to the time that passes before it is eaten.

For me, that is one of the most exciting opportunities at the intersection of food science, plant science, and Food Is Medicine.

We can be more intentional about the plants we choose.

We can be more thoughtful about how we grow them.

And we can dramatically shorten the distance between a living plant and the plate.

The result is not simply more produce.

It is an opportunity to make exceptional plants, plants selected for flavor, diversity, beauty, and nutritional potential, a more routine part of everyday life. Adding more fiber and plant variety to a week becomes considerably easier when the plants are already growing in the kitchen.

Grow what this article is about

Cultivar choice, growing environment and time from harvest are the three variables this article is about, and a home system puts all three within your control. The Gardyn Home and Gardyn Studio grow from pre-seeded yCubes. The plant library shows which cultivars are available each season.

Frequently asked questions

What is Food Is Medicine?

Food Is Medicine refers to the idea that dietary patterns influence health outcomes, and to the programs built on that principle, including produce prescription programs and medically tailored meals. It is usually discussed in terms of what people eat. This article argues that the conversation is incomplete without also considering which plants are grown, how they are grown, and how long passes between harvest and the plate.

Is it food as medicine or food is medicine?

Both phrasings appear in common use and refer to the same broad concept. Food Is Medicine is the phrasing generally used by public health programs and policy initiatives in the United States, which is the convention followed here.

Does growing food at home make it more nutritious?

It changes specific variables rather than improving nutrition across the board. Cultivar genetics determine phytochemical potential, the growing environment influences how that potential is expressed, and time from harvest affects the retention of unstable nutrients such as vitamin C. Home growing gives you direct control over cultivar choice, developmental stage at harvest, and the postharvest interval. It does not change fiber or mineral content, both of which are stable.

Which nutrients decline after harvest?

Vitamin C is the most sensitive and the best studied. Folate and several other water-soluble vitamins also decline with time, temperature and light exposure. Minerals do not degrade, because they are elements, and fiber is similarly stable. Any claim that produce loses its minerals in transit is not chemically coherent.

Are microgreens more nutritious than mature plants?

Sometimes, and not universally. One study across lettuce cultivars found ascorbic acid and phenolic concentrations roughly 42% and 79% higher at earlier developmental stages. The effect varies by cultivar and by nutrient, and these figures are per unit weight rather than per serving, which matters because a garnish is not a serving. The useful conclusion is that developmental stage is a nutritional variable you can control, not that earlier is always better.

Why does cultivar choice matter if the vegetable is the same?

Because cultivar genetics establish what a plant is capable of producing. Red and purple lettuces accumulate anthocyanins that pale-green types largely do not, and peer-reviewed comparisons have found cultivar-dependent differences in total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. Two lettuces grown with identical effort can differ meaningfully in pigmentation and composition.

Do herbs count toward dietary diversity if you eat so little of them?

They contribute more than their serving size suggests. One study found that adding only 1.5% fresh lemon balm or marjoram by weight increased the measured antioxidant capacity of a salad by approximately 150% and 200% respectively. Antioxidant-capacity assays do not directly predict clinical outcomes, but the finding does show that small additions of aromatic herbs substantially change the phytochemical composition of a meal.

References

1. Le TN, et al. The glucosinolates and their bioactive derivatives in Brassica: a review on classification, biosynthesis and content in plant tissues, fate during and after processing, effect on the human organism and interaction with the gut microbiota. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 2020.
2. Dinkova-Kostova AT, et al. The challenges of designing and implementing clinical trials with broccoli sprouts, and turning evidence into public health action. Frontiers in Nutrition. 2021.
3. Almatroodi SA, et al. Anticancer properties of sulforaphane: current insights at the molecular level. Frontiers in Oncology. 2023.
4. Ninfali P, Mea G, Giorgini S, Rocchi M, Bacchiocca M. Antioxidant capacity of vegetables, spices and dressings relevant to nutrition. British Journal of Nutrition. 2005;93:257-266.
5. Llorach R, Martínez-Sánchez A, Tomás-Barberán FA, Gil MI, Ferreres F. Characterisation of polyphenols and antioxidant properties of five lettuce varieties and escarole. Food Chemistry. 2008;108(3):1028-1038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2007.11.032
6. Effect of various LED light qualities, including wide red spectrum-LED, on the growth and quality of mini red romaine lettuce (cv. Breen). Plants. 2023.
7. Darko E, Heydarizadeh P, Schoefs B, Sabzalian MR. Photosynthesis under artificial light: the shift in primary and secondary metabolism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 2014.
8. Aldiyab A, Dasgan HY, Ikiz B, et al. Tailoring LED spectra and cultivation systems enhances lettuce productivity and nutritional quality in vertical indoor farming. BMC Plant Biology. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-09420-x
9. Iakimova ET, Woltering EJ. The wound response in fresh-cut lettuce involves programmed cell death events. Protoplasma. 2018;255:1225-1238.
10. Campos-Vargas R, Saltveit ME. Involvement of putative chemical wound signals in the induction of phenolic metabolism in wounded lettuce. Physiologia Plantarum. 2002.
11. Dewhirst RA, et al. Novel insights into ascorbate retention and degradation during the washing and post-harvest storage of spinach and other salad leaves. Food Chemistry. 2017.
12. Moraes FA, et al. Vitamin C loss in vegetables during storage, preparation and distribution in restaurants. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva. 2010;15:51-62.
13. Assessment of volatile profile as potential marker of chilling injury of basil leaves during postharvest storage. Food Chemistry. 2016.
14. Ciriello M, et al. Changes in visual quality, physiological and biochemical parameters assessed during the postharvest storage at chilling or non-chilling temperatures of three sweet basil cultivars. Food Chemistry.
15. El-Nakhel C, et al. The nutritional quality potential of microgreens, baby leaves, and adult lettuce: an underexploited nutraceutical source. Foods. 2022.
16. Angelino D, et al. Isothiocyanates from Brassica vegetables, effects of processing, cooking, mastication, and digestion. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. 2018.