Food of the Week: Beets
I thought I’d do this week’s post on beets because they are such a powerhouse for nutrition. Beets have been used in many applications to help people improve their health. Read on to learn more!
First of all, beets come in several varieties. There are also different colors of beets including pink, yellow, and white! Some of them are such beautiful hues. Beets are often used for their color when making processed foods that need a certain hue to look appealing. Not only is the root part you normally think of edible, but the leaves or beet tops are as well!
Beets (and their leaves) can be eaten raw or cooked. I will link some recipes below if you want to try it out! Beets retain a bit more of their nutrition when consumed raw, but either way is helpful to your body! You can also tried them pickled! There was resident at my old job that LOVED pickled beets and kept asking for them! 🙂
Claims about the benefits of consuming beets include: lowering blood pressure, improving endurance and stamina, aiding digestion, preserving brain function, promoting weight loss and detoxification, improving heart health, and preventing cancer and respiratory issues. There are even more claims than this! If you want to read more about the potential health benefits of beets, go here or here to learn all the details.
Beets are a prime example of why you should eat a variety of colors when consuming fruits and vegetables. The varying pigments provide varying nutrients and antioxidants. Beets rich in color are often rich in helpful antioxidants. These phytonutrients can help fight inflammation, the underlying cause of many health conditions.
Beets are a good source of fiber and manganese. They also contain a decent amount of potassium, magnesium, copper, vitamin C, folate, and some iron. The green tops of the beets are also packed with nutrients- including fiber, vitamin C, iron, calcium, vitamin A, riboflavin, and manganese. See, it’s important to eat the entire food, not just part of it!
Eating a wide variety of plant foods helps us to get the optimal nutrition that we need. If you are not getting your weekly servings of fruits and vegetables, you probably have a deficiency of some sort whether it be vitamin or mineral. If you want to talk about this, feel free to email me, or talk to your doctor about testing your levels. Getting the right nutrition can make a huge difference in our health.
Back to beets! These super roots and their greens can be made into a delicious meal in many ways. Beets are a great food to have during a time of detox or if you want to decrease inflammation in your body. They have an earthy flavor, but are naturally quite sweet. Here are some different recipes you could try out, listed below.
thanks for the recipes and for featuring beets here in this blog. This is indeed an awesome read