Detox
Daikon Radish
A long, mild white radish common in East Asian cooking, used both raw for crunch and pickled or cooked for digestion.
Detox
Gut Health
Immunity
Serving
1 cup, sliced, raw (88g)
Calories Per Serving
16
Key nutrients
Vitamin C, digestive enzymes, fiber
Nutrient density
Not officially rated
Why it’s worth eating
Daikon radish is low in calories and rich in vitamin C, potassium, and digestive enzymes. It supports digestion and metabolism. Enjoy raw in salads or pickled in dishes.
What you may notice
Digestive comfort
Skin clarity
Markers worth tracking
Liver enzyme panel
TSH and thyroid panel
How to eat it
Eat raw or lightly pickled to preserve the digestive enzymes, these are reduced significantly by cooking.
Pairs well with
Cooked cruciferous vegetables, raw daikon alongside supplies the enzyme that helps activate cooked cruciferous compounds
Soy sauce or vinegar, a traditional pairing that also aids digestion
Storage
Refrigerate in a perforated bag; use within 1-2 weeks.
The numbers, per 1 cup, sliced, raw (88g)
0%
Vitamin K
0%
Vitamin A
22%
Vitamin C
2%
Calcium
2%
Iron
3%
Magnesium
4%
Potassium
0%
Vitamin B12
0%
Vitamin D
Fiber
1.4g
Radishes, oriental (daikon), raw (FDC 169277)
Evidence
D
HONEST FLAG on clinical endpoints, but a genuinely useful PREPARATION finding: raw daikon works as an exogenous myrosinase source to restore isothiocyanate formation in cooked crucifers.
Study dose vs. serving
KITCHEN TRICK: 12 adults eating 200 g cooked broccoli with 1 g brown mustard powder had urinary sulforaphane-N-acetylcysteine rise from 9.8 to 44.7 umol/g creatinine, over 4-fold. A raw radish or mustard-powder topping on cooked broccoli is evidence-backed.
Dosz & Jeffery. J Food Sci. 2013;78(9):H1459-63 (adding 0.25% daikon to frozen broccoli restored sulforaphane formation; radish myrosinase retained about 11% activity after 125C for 10 min). Stronger HUMAN evidence uses mustard: Okunade et al. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2018;62:1700980.
Use caution if
You have hypothyroidism, raw daikon contains goitrogenic compounds
You have a sensitive stomach, the natural sulfur compounds can cause mild gas in some people
Details
Type
Fruits & Veg
Season
Cool season, autumn
Forms
Fresh, pickled (takuan), dried (kiriboshi)
Price
Budget
Bioactive
Isothiocyanates, notably 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate (MTBITC)
Heat stable
Partial - radish myrosinase is unusually heat-resilient, which is why it works as a restoration agent
Reliability
2 / 5
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