Posted on 09/03/2009 2:00:45 PM PDT by Steelfish
Is beetroot the latest superfood?
Beetroot may help reduce blood pressure but is it really a miracle cure?
By Rose Prince 03 Sep 2009
Pass a packet of wine gums around, and everyone takes the red one. Confectioners know that colour sells – it always has, long before sweets were invented. Cherries, raspberries, blackcurrants and grapes have always been irresistible.
But, if Mother Nature made healthy foods red in order to encourage us to eat more of them, where did she go wrong with beetroot? One glimpse of it haemorrhaging its juice over the hard-boiled egg and iceberg lettuce in a salad is enough to make most people sick. Most of us swore undying hate for it after that first vinegary bite. Did they pickle it because they couldn't sell it? I swear the same pack has been sitting on the shelf in our local greengrocer for three years.
Its colour pushes itself embarrassingly everywhere. Even into your pee. Why eat it, then? Because it is good for you, obviously.
I don't want to use the term "superfood". Superfoods were invented to feed an obsession with finding a miracle cure for cancer. More than anything we want to believe that eating a single fruit or vegetable containing a certain chemical will zap a diseased cell. But it isn't that simple. New EU guidelines are about to ban the word superfood as a selling pitch, unless it is backed up with science.
The new rules come as something of a relief because it will force food manufacturers to pay for proper independent research – and to tell the truth.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I for one have always loved beets. Beet root must be an ‘English’ terminology. Have used the greens from the tops and they are good also.
Pickled, hot,cold, mashed, sliced, any old way... I like beets
Me too....and being from the South, I love to eat the tops as greens (well, almost green). Beet greens are about halfway between collards and mustard greens in taste and texture.
Me too. I don’t understand the article; I thought everyone loved them.
Back when I was researching foods to fight cancer, there was a difference between sprouts and the actual vegetable. can't remember which one. I think broccoli. So could there be a difference between roots and the actual beet
I guess Beet Root is another name for Beet...
not roots of the beet.
Yup. Good eatin anyway ya taste em
Beet root from the description in the article is the bulbous end of the beet plant. They grow like turnips and rutabaga and other such vegetables. They have tops that are green ( or greenish). look the English call turnips parsnip and I can tell you those are two very different flavors
I take the beet greens and clean them and then saute them in olive oil with kosher salt. Yummy! I usually serve them with chicken or pork.
Since it is suppose to be good for high blood pressure I am going to buy some juice and see if I can handle the taste.
BEETJUICE BEETJUICE BEETJUICE......AHHH!!! theres a demonic beet dressed in prison garb in my house!!!!
BTW, I also bake whole beets as an alternative to a bake potatoe.Slathered with butter of course. Baked beets are on my long list of comfort foods.
So do I and add a dash or two of balsamic vinegar instead of the salt -- wonderful!
I love beets and was raised eating them: both roots and tops. Pickled canned beets used to be more available but I can’t find them now.
A specialty grocery near me once carried crystallized beet juice (purple crystals). Another store sold sugar beet syrup, which was very tasty.
When our church has fundraiser suppers, we always serve chilled pickled beets with raw onion slices.
There are never any left over, either.
One of my personal favorites is diced turnips sauteed in bacon grease, served with a dash of apple cider vinegar.
Love those roots!
Love beets and have not tried baking them. Will give it a try. Be aware that you may think you have blood in your urine but not to worry (simply the beet juice).
True that
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