Your body runs its own cleanup crew. One small molecule works day and night inside your cells, mopping up the wear and tear that builds as you live. Most people have never heard its name.

It is called glutathione. Every cell you own makes it. And food labs have measured how much of it sits in the foods on your plate...

One green spear tops the vegetable list. A bunch costs a few dollars. Tonight's recipe needs seven items, one pan of water, and about ten minutes.

What you need: One pound of asparagus, about one bunch. A lemon. Some extra-virgin olive oil, about a tablespoon. Two cloves of garlic. A small handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley, about two tablespoons. Salt and black pepper.

How: Trim the woody ends off the spears. Bring a wide pan of water to a boil. Drop in the spears and cook 2 to 3 minutes, just until they turn bright green and bend a little. Lift them out and drain. Squeeze the lemon into a large bowl, then stir in the oil and the minced garlic. Add the warm spears and toss to coat. Scatter the parsley on top, season to taste, and serve warm.

Now for the story. In 1806, two French chemists named Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet pressed the juice out of asparagus. Out of that green juice came a white crystal no one had seen before. They named it asparagine, after the plant...

It was the first amino acid ever found. Amino acids are the small parts your body snaps together to build what it needs. So a spear on a lab bench gave science its first look at one of life's building blocks.

One more thing people ask about. That odd smell some folks notice after eating asparagus does not come from asparagine. It comes from a different sulfur compound in the spear. And here is the funny part: not everyone can smell it at all.

The plant was old news to cooks by then. Its name comes from a Greek word for a young shoot. English folk once called it "sparrow grass." And in Germany, the spring harvest still ends on June 24, a date growers have kept for a very long time.

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Glutathione is not an amino acid. It is three of them, linked in a short chain. Think of it as a sponge. It soaks up the harsh by-products your cells make as they burn fuel, and then your body wrings it out and uses it again.

In 1992, a team led by Dean Jones at Emory University bought foods from stores in Atlanta. They cooked them the way most people do, then measured the glutathione in each one. Fresh asparagus came out on top of the vegetables, at 28.3 milligrams in every 100 grams. Spinach, the leaf most of us think of first, held less than half that.

Take a look.

Emory University, 1992: fresh asparagus held 28.3 mg of glutathione per 100 grams, the top vegetable on the list. Spinach held less than half as much.

Each part of the toss has a job. The spear brings vitamins K and E, and both need fat to cross into your body, so the olive oil carries them in. Garlic adds sulfur compounds, and early lab work hints they may help your cells build more glutathione of their own. The lemon brings tang and a bit of vitamin C. Parsley adds a fresh green bite on top.

Here's the thing. A spear can hold a lot of glutathione, but that does not mean it all reaches your cells. For years, many scientists said the gut just breaks it back into its three parts.

Then a Penn State team tried a test. They gave 54 adults a glutathione pill or a blank pill every day for six months. Blood levels of the compound rose in the pill groups, at both a low dose and a high one. The study was published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2015.

But that was a pill, and a strong one. The low dose matches about two pounds of raw asparagus a day. No study has tested whether a normal side dish moves the needle. The pills they tested were a brand sold by a supplement company.

So hold this loosely. No spear flushes "toxins" out of you. Your own cells do that work, and they build their own glutathione from the food you eat. What asparagus gives you is a cheap, fresh green with a real lab number behind it. That is a good reason to put it on the plate. It is not a cure, and it was never meant to be one...

Look for bright green stalks with tips that are closed and firm. Purdue University Extension says to skip spears with yellow or dry tips, since those are old. Thick and thin stalks both cook up tender, so pick what fits your pan.

In the Emory work, foods that were canned or put up in jars lost much of their glutathione. Spears bought fresh kept the most. Buy a bunch you will cook within a few days, and leave the canned kind on the shelf.

Set a timer for two minutes. Lift one spear out and bend it. If it droops like a wet noodle, it went too long. Thin spears may need less time, and fat ones a bit more. You want bright green, a little give, and a crisp snap when you bite.

Two chemists once found a new building block of life in a cup of green juice. You don't need a lab. All it takes is one bunch, one pan of water, and ten minutes.

Make the toss tonight. Then give the spear a spot on your plate this week and see how it fits.