Overview
About Rocket
Rocket, sold as arugula in North America, is about as clean as a salad leaf gets in this database: rated low on histamine and on histamine liberation, free of gluten, lactose and dairy protein, no nickel flag, no lectin flag, no free glutamate, no FODMAP load, and rated strongly anti-inflammatory, which very few foods manage. It is a brassica, a cousin of mustard and watercress, and the peppery bite is glucosinolates converting to isothiocyanates the moment a leaf is chewed or bruised. Two honest caveats: it is rated poorly for low fermentation SIBO protocols, and we do not carry confirmed salicylate or oxalate figures for it, so those stay in the test it yourself column.
Sensitivities
How Rocket scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Rated poor for low fermentation SIBO approaches. A large raw bowl is a lot of leaf fiber arriving at once, and people following that protocol usually do better wilting rocket into a hot dish than eating it as the base of a salad
- Oxalate is not rated in our data. Published oxalate tables generally place rocket well below spinach, chard and beet greens, which is why it is so often the leaf people switch to when building a lower oxalate salad, but the numbers differ between sources, so log it rather than assuming
- Salicylate is also unrated here, and salicylate lists disagree about peppery greens in particular. If you are in the strict phase of a salicylate elimination, treat rocket as untested and reintroduce it deliberately instead of counting it as safe
- The pepperiness is itself an irritant for some people: isothiocyanates are the same chemistry that makes mustard and horseradish sting. Older, larger, wild rocket leaves are far sharper than baby leaf, so a burning tongue after a rocket salad is usually the mustard oils rather than an allergy
- Like other dark leaves it is high in vitamin K, which matters if you take warfarin. The guidance there is a steady, consistent intake rather than avoidance, so decide on a habit and keep it
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Rocket
Is rocket or arugula high in oxalate?
We do not carry a confirmed oxalate rating for rocket, so we will not put a grade on it. What can be said fairly is that published oxalate tables consistently place rocket far below spinach, chard and beet greens, which is why dietitians often suggest it as the base leaf for people who need to cut oxalate but still want a salad. Values do vary between tables and growing conditions, so if stones are your concern, use it as a probable improvement on spinach and track your own response.
Is rocket low FODMAP?
Yes. Rocket is rated clean on total FODMAPs and on each individual group, including fructans, which is where a lot of vegetables come unstuck. It is one of the more reliable salad leaves on a low FODMAP plan. The separate caveat is that it is rated poorly for low fermentation SIBO diets, which is a fiber volume issue rather than a FODMAP one, so the two ratings are not in conflict.
Is rocket safe on a histamine intolerance diet?
The leaf itself is rated low in histamine and is not rated as a histamine liberator, so fresh rocket is a reasonable choice. The problem with a rocket salad is almost always everything else in the bowl: aged parmesan, balsamic vinegar, cured ham, olives and pesto are all high histamine, and they are the traditional partners. Buy the leaves fresh, use them quickly, and rebuild the dressing.
Why is rocket so peppery, and does it upset some people?
Rocket is a brassica, and intact leaves store glucosinolates separately from the enzyme that acts on them. Chewing, chopping or bruising a leaf brings the two together and produces isothiocyanates, the same class of compound that gives mustard and horseradish their heat. That is the peppery hit, it intensifies in older and wild leaves and in plants grown under stress, and it can genuinely irritate a sore mouth or an already inflamed gut even though the leaf is rated clean on the standard triggers.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.