Nothing Beats Eating Beets

Beets! Beautiful in color and highly nutritious, these root vegetables contain antioxidants and are chock-full of uber health benefits. From the Swiss chard and spinach families, these low calorie vegetables contain zero cholesterol, and have very little fat. Beets are quite the versatile vegetable too, and can be cooked, juiced, chopped, grated, shredded, boiled, steamed, and roasted, and make for some delicious recipes.

Disease Inhibitor: Beets help with a variety of diseases and conditions, including protection against coronary artery disease and stroke, lowering cholesterol, lowering homocysteine levels (a marker for cellular death), and help with platelets to clot and prevent plaquing along arterial walls. Do you have a heart condition or experience swelling in joints? Than beets are just for you! Thinking of taking an anti-inflammatory? Try eating beets instead of popping a pill, as beets lower inflammation by inhibiting both COX-1 and COX-2; enzymes which facilitate cells to produce inflammation. Research also shows that beetroot can help people who experience: Acidosis (beets are alkaline), Anemia, Atherosclerosis, blood pressure, dandruff (mix a little apple cider vinegar with some beet juice and massage into scalp and leave on for an hour, and rinse), ulcers (mix with honey and drink a few times a week), gallbladder and liver cleanse, body detoxification, and varicose veins.

Nutrient Dense: Are beet greens edible? Yes, they are, and they contain lutein and zeaxanthin, both great for eye health and vision. Beets are a power house of fiber and pectin, and help with digestive and colon health (great for constipation and diarrhea), and are a likely reducer of cancers due to its content of betalain, carotenoids, flavonoids, fiber, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin C, iron, folate (great for DNA synthesis and pregnant moms), potassium, and Vitamin B complex. Beet leaves have a bitter taste, yet are incredibly nutrient dense with chlorophyll, and have a higher nutritional value than the beet roots themselves.

How to Enjoy Eating Beets: Choose beet roots that are firm, smooth, and ones with rounder bottoms, as they are sweeter in taste than beet bottoms that are flat. Beets keep for three to four days in the fridge when attached with its associated, nutrient dense greens and can keep for about two weeks without its greens attached. Do not wash beets until you are ready to cook or eat them. To enjoy the full flavor of beets and to absorb most of its heavenly goodness of nutrients, eat them fresh or juice them. When juicing, add a small slice of lemon with its peel intact to better absorb its nutrients. When steaming beets, cut the majority of greens two inches from its root and cut the beetroot into quarters, with its skin intact, and steam for 15 minutes to a rapid boil or roast for 60 minutes or less, as any more time in heat will denature its nutrients. Should your hands stain from beet juice, use lemon juice to remove stains on your hands.

Healthy Recipes: Beets are the main ingredient of borscht, a popular Eastern European soup. Its greens can be used in salad, much like spinach and Swiss chard. Try using beets as a garnish, grating or chopping them into salads, or my favorite, marinating steamed beats in lemon juice, olive oil, and an assortment of fresh herbs.

Beetroots are a wonderful addition to most people's diets. They can be prepared and cooked in several different ways, are nutrient dense, and are great natural detoxifiers and anti-inflammatory foods that can help the body in various healthy ways.

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