Beet

Beetroot (sometimes called table beet, garden beet, red or golden beet, or just beet) is a taproot part of the beet plant. It is used for nourishment, but it also has use in food coloring and medicine. It can be used anywhere between raw to heavily processed.

Beetroot can be eaten raw and shredded into a salad (alone or with other vegetables), boiled, cooked, pickled, or cold as a salad after cooking. Originating in Ukraine, borscht is a beetroot soup popular in many countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Other ingredients in borscht are beef or pork broth, potatoes, carrots, and peppers for a hot variant, and sour cream, soured milk, kefir, yogurt, buttermilk, radishes or cucumbers for a cold variant of borscht.

Poland has ćwikła, a mix of beetroot and horseradish which goes as a salad with cold cuts and sandwiches or a side dish with meat and potatoes.Pennsylvania Dutch make so-called “pickled beet egg”. First, beets are pickled and then removed from the liquid which is saved. Then, hard-boiled eggs placed in the liquid to marinate until they are red from the color of the beetroot juice. It is even possible to make wine out of beetroot.

In the food industry, beetroot juice is used as a colorant. Its purpose is to amplify the color of tomato juice and to give color to sauces, desserts, jams and other food items that are not red enough.

Benefits:

1.Fight cancer : Beets contain high levels of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents that studies show may help reduce the risk of some cancers. They get their striking red colour from betacyanin, a plant pigment that some preliminary research indicates might help defend cells against harmful carcinogens. Also, high levels of a unique fibre found in beets may be linked to a lower colon cancer risk.

2.Lower risk of heart diseases: Beets are a good source of folate and betaine. These nutrients act together to help lower blood levels of homocysteine, which can increase your risk of heart disease by causing artery-damaging inflammation.

3.Boost eye health: Beet greens are a good source of lutein, an antioxidant that helps protect the eyes from age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

4.Boost endurance: British researchers conducted studies that found athletes who drank beet juice mixed with a little apple juice before working out reported better endurance and a lower resting blood pressure than those who did not. The performance boost is thought to be from the nitrates found in the root. Additional research suggests that a beet-apple juice mixture could make certain activities (like walking) less exhausting for seniors.

5.Reduce dementia risk: Beets produce nitric acid, which helps increase blood flow throughout your body, including to your brain. MRI done on older adults showed that after eating a high-nitrate diet that included beet juice, the subjects had more blood flow to the white matter of their frontal lobes.

6.Combat constipation: Fibre helps keep your digestive system running smoothly.

Serving way:

• Raw: Slice them up and serve them with a sprinkle of chile and lemon.

• Roasted with goat cheese: Roast beets until they are tender and juicy, then eat them with some spicy greens and piquant goat cheese. Add some hazelnuts and you’re in heaven.

• In a salad: Beets make a good complement to other salad staples. Try them tossed with barley and feta in a grain salad, or with onions and horseradish cream in an elegant composed dinner salad.

• Pickled: Pickled beets are just marvelous. The tangy vinegar and sweetness complements beets’ earth undernotes.

• As dessert: Such as velvety beet, cocoa cake, and bright red beet ice cream.

https://www.readersdigest.ca/food/healthy-food/health-benefits-of-beets/