Monday, July 1, 2013

MAGICAL BEETS

Hello all you curious gardeners, it's Alex again and today I will be filling you in on the magical nutritional powers of beets.

As a child, we always sat down at the table for family dinners. Usually what you would see was four table settings, some sort of meat for protein, a starch probably in the form of potatoes or pasta, and a variety of vegetables. The classic minnesota "meat-and-potatoes-diet." My family has never been able to decide on just one vegetable. Mostly this was because of my father who liked very few, but he's gotten a lot better since my mother and him have started their own garden. Usually beets were not on me and my father's side of the table, but rather my mom and sister's side. I hated beets growing up and haven't been able to give them a second chance since I've moved out. Since I always encourage our readers to try new things, I'm going to make sure I give beets a second chance.

NUTRITION
 
Beets are jam-packed with some great nutrients.
1 Roasted beet contains:
  • 44 calories
  • .2 g fat
  • 77 mg sodium
  • 10 g carbohydrates
  • 2 g fiber
  • 8 g sugar
  • 1.7 g protein
  • NO CHOLESTEROL!
THE ROOTS
Beets are also a great source of many other nutrients including folate, manganese, and potassium.  What's great about beets and their great source of potassium is that potassium helps to decrease your heart rate and regulate metabolism.  This is a great thing to keep in mind for your diet.  It's not just what  you eat that affects your health, it's your metabolism as well.

THE GREENS
Beleive it or not, the greens, or tops, of beets are good for you as well and contain nutrients such as beta carotene, vitamin C, calcium, and iron.

FOLATE
When  you think of foods associated with high levels of folate, you may think of green and leafy vegetables.  Actually, the beautiful red roots that we know as beets are a great source of folate, containing 37% of your daily value within 1 cup of raw beets.  Folate is important for DNA synthesis and can help prevent neural tube defects in newborns. 
* Although beets are a great source of folate, the amount may be decreased when cooked at high temperatures. 

HEALTH BENEFITS - Heart Healthy!

Along with all the other wonderful nutrients found in beets, they also contain phytonutrients, which you may have heard me talk about before in my previous posts.  These are the good guys, especially the ones found in beets: betalains.  Betalains work as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxifying agent. 

Betaine is also found in beets and is from the B-complex vitamin, choline.  Choline helps our cardiovascular system by regulating inflammation and unwanted buildup of homocysteine.  What's homocysteine you say? Homocysteine is an amino acid (What makes up proteins) that when found in high levels in the blood can lead to cardiovascular issues such as chronic heart disease, stroke, or peripheral vascular disease.  Betaine works to decrease your chances of unwanted cardiovascular problems by regulating homocysteine.

Even if I don't like beets, that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't try them if you haven't already!  There are some really wonderful and healthy beet salads out there that are just waiting for you to try them!

RESOURCES
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&authuser=0&biw=1085&bih=498&tbm=isch&tbnid=foQMtMMrDia-PM:&imgrefurl=http://www.nsgfarm2fork.com/beets.html&docid=lSN9MnxL_B5pRM&imgurl=http://thegardenguide.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5524801f388340147e1b7a240970b-800wi&w=800&h=531&ei=VX3LUbCzAsTqyQHv04GgBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=125&page=4&tbnh=154&tbnw=234&start=44&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:56,s:0,i:263&tx=176&ty=115
  
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