The humble beet, steamed, boiled, roasted, pickled, borscht’ed—but especially served raw—is nutritious and offers many health benefits.
If you’ve never considered beets for breakfast, snacks, or potluck food, these facts may spark your imagination:
Our bodies eventually convert nitrates to nitric oxide, a compound that relaxes and opens blood vessels.
Heat destroys betalain pigments. To preserve the maximum health benefits, grate raw beets into salads, process them into smoothies, or steam/roast beets just long enough to tenderize them.
Beet greens are delicious raw in salads or lightly steamed.
If you have even a little space, beets are easy to grow, even in containers. They attract few pests or diseases, grow quickly, and come in many shades of red, pink, striped, and yellow.
See our Beets Growing Guide.
Note: The betalain pigments in raw or cooked red beets may cause the urine or stool to turn pink or even bright red for a day or two. The amount of excreted pigment depends on the pH of the stomach and how long the food remained there.
~ By Margaret BoylesMargaret Boyles lives in a wood-heated house in central New Hampshire. She grows vegetables, keeps chickens, swims in a backyard pond in summer, snowshoes in the surrounding woods in winter, and commutes by bike whenever possible.
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