FertilehealthyAiming for success, not perfection…

One of my favorite foods is beetroot. That’s probably something you don’t hear every day, but it’s true!

It wasn’t always the case though. Like most people, I grew up with pickled store-bought beetroot. All you could taste was vinegar! It’s only in recent years that I’ve discovered and come to love the earthy taste of fresh beetroot. We eat it at least once a week.

Beetroot is of course very good for you.

- The purple pigment has been shown to normalize and increase cell respiration, making beetroot one of the key foods in preventing and curing cancer. It is widely used in natural cancer remedies.
- Increased cell respiration makes it beneficial in the treatment of all other degenerative diseases.
- It is a great liver and blood cleanser.
- It has a reputation for stimulating the immune system and acts as a tonic for convalescents.
- It is a good source of folate (folic acid), a very important nutrient for fertility and fetal development, but also for the regulating of blood pressure and the prevention of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
- It’s rich in potassium, which regulates the heartbeat, and maintains normal blood pressure and nerve function.
- It’s rich in phosphorous, which is essential for the absorption of calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and sodium and aids kidney and heart function.
- It contains Vitamin C.
- Phytochemicals, carotenoids and flavonoids present in beetroot help in the reduction of harmful LDL cholesterol.
- It’s rich in soluble fiber, which helps delay the conversion of its sugars, thereby maintaining blood sugar levels.
- The leafy tops are storehouses of iron, calcium and beta-carotene.

The leaves are edible and can be cooked just like spinach. I use them in my green smoothies.

Fresh beetroot is one of the rare foods that are even more nutritious cooked than raw. It does lose some of its folate, but the mineral content is increased, while the vitamin content stays roughly the same. However, a lot of nutrients, including the cancer-fighting pigments, are lost when beetroot is commercially processed and pickled, so rather buy it fresh and cook it yourself.

There are many ways to eat beetroot. You can peel and grate the raw beetroot and add it to salads. You can roast it and have it in a salad with goat’s cheese or eat it like oven chips. You can juice it with carrots and apples for a nutritional power punch. You can boil it, remove the skin and eat it just like that. Or you can make this delicious salad (my current favorite):

Beetroot and Parsley Salad

2 bunches beetroot, cooked
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 tsp grated orange rind
¼ cup sesame oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
herb salt
freshly ground black pepper

Peel and dice the cooked beetroot. Combine the parsley and orange rind and mix with the beetroot. Combine the rest of the ingredients and toss through the salad. Reserve a little orange rind and parsley for decoration.

If you’ve never eaten fresh beetroot you may be in for a surprise when you go to the bathroom. Some of us, myself included, can not break down the red pigment, betacyanin (one of the many beneficial betalain pigments), so it passes straight through, tinting the urine and stools pink. Therefore, trying to surreptitiously pee in a public pool after eating beetroot might not be a good idea. Not that anyone who reads this blog would ever do that of course!

So, do you like beetroot? My best friend, Lizana, eats everything EXCEPT beetroot. She can’t even look at it!