Alfalfa

Studies in people

• Benefit

  Cholesterol levels²

  In people, eating alfalfa seeds for three weeks lowered cholesterol, and in rats they cut how much cholesterol the gut absorbed.

• Benefit

  Cholesterol levels in people⁵

  In people with high cholesterol, eating alfalfa seeds daily lowered their cholesterol, but levels went back up after they stopped.

Found in some samples or products

These come from where it was grown, how it was processed or cooked, or what it was made into. They are not about the ingredient itself, so the signal does not count them.

• Food poisoning outbreak³

  In Norway, 230 people got sick from Salmonella linked to alfalfa sprouts, and many had to go to hospital.

• Food poisoning from sprouts⁴

  In 2018, 31 people in Australia got sick from Salmonella Havana after eating alfalfa sprouts.

The signal at the top counts the findings in people and in animal and lab studies. A concern in studies of people outranks animal and lab studies, and “No concerns” needs at least one finding in people. When most findings in people point one way, the page leans that way (“Mostly”), and every finding is still shown. Findings whose study type is not stated are shown but not counted. This page is a reference, not medical advice. It describes what regulators and published research say. Talk to a doctor or dietitian about your own diet.