TAKE A BEET

     Have you ever wanted to know a little something about a food, particularly a vegetable, you didn’t like? Well, maybe you haven’t, but I have. As a child, I bit into a beet, decided it was too odd-tasting and bitter for me and immediately put it into the category of ‘yuck.’ But as I entered the field of nurse practitioning, holistic and complimentary health, offering my patients alternatives to prescriptive medications, I decided to take another look or TAKE A BEET.

     Consuming beets, also known as root vegetables along with onions, ginger, garlic, celery, carrots and fennel, is believed to have originated along the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

TREATMENT

     Initially, ancient Romans, used beets as a treatment for fevers as well as a laxative. The leaves were used as binding treatments for wounds, headaches and toothaches. An old tale suggests that in some cultures beets were used as an aphrodisiac, as couples fell in love while eating from the same beet root.

     Throughout history, beets were ranked as the second most hated vegetable next to turnips due to them smelling like the dirt they were grown in. Geosmin, the chemical the beets contain, is to blame for their earthy smell. It replicates the aroma of fresh rain.

VARIETIES

     There are different variations of beets: red-classic, tasting bitter and sweet. golden-more earthy. striped-great for slicing into salads and baby beets-picked before fully grown to make room for other beets to grow. These are the sweetest.

FIND

     You can find beets in the produce section year round, but they are best in the winter. Look for beets with smooth, undamaged roots and crisp green leaves. As mentioned earlier, the smaller they are, the sweeter the taste.

STORAGE

     Remove the leaves from the root. If you don’t, they will suck up the moisture. But save them as they are edible, Wrap the root in a baggie and store in the fridge for up to three weeks.

RECIPES

     Of all the recipes I reviewed including Beet Pesto Pizza with Goat Cheese and Kale, the one that mostly appealed to me Pink Power Beet Smoothie. This smoothie takes the classic strawberry banana smoothie and super charges it with the antioxidants found in beets. While you can use raw beets in the smoothie, they will add an earthy, pungent taste to it, but retain the vitamins. It’s best to use the baby beets as they are sweeter.This recipe, adapted from chatelaine.com takes 10 minutes to prepare. Is 217 calories and serves three.

You will need:

2 cups peeled baby beets 

2 cups frozen raspberries

1 frozen banana, halved

1 cup 2% Greek yogurt

1 cup of water

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 tbsp honey

Then go crazy whirling the beets, frozen raspberries, banana, yogurt, water, ginger and honey in a blender until  smooth. Pour into glasses. 

 ONE TIP

     If cooking  with beets on a regular basis, put them in a pot of boiling water with the peel on. Let them cool and use a hand towel to easily remove the peel. You may want to use a pair of gloves to avoid the red staining on your hands.

WHAT ELSE DID I LEARN

     The red color of beets is due to Betanin, a potential phytochemical. It is a rich source of minerals such as potassium, sodium, iron, zinc and copper. Most importantly, it is low in calories. Good to know for us chicks tolerating the chaos of menopause and the bulge battle. Beet root is also an excellent source of nitrates, which are converted into nitric oxide. This helps with good blood flow. Guys may want to consider the beet root instead of viagra and/or cialis.

     THE MORAL OF THE STORY: just like you cannot or should not judge a book by its cover, one should not immediately discard a vegetable or a food just by one taste or a poorly made recipe.