Beetroots, also known as beets, are a root vegetable that slightly resembles a turnip and are dense with nutrients, including potassium, betaine, magnesium, folate, and Vitamin C. Beets are a low-calorie food packed with essential vitamins, minerals and plant compounds, some of which have medicinal properties.
Beetroots are especially high in potassium, manganese, folate, and copper:
- The high amounts of potassium in beets help dilate your blood vessels, lowering your blood pressure throughout your body.
- The copper found in beets makes the body efficiently regenerate red blood cells and improve cellular respiration that kills cancer cells and eliminates waste products.
- Manganese present in beets is needed for enzymatic processes in your body, as well as for metabolism, wound healing, and healthy bones.
- Folate is essential for DNA synthesis and preventing neural tube defects in babies. It’s also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and depression.
For a more detailed view of beetroots nutrients visit: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169145/nutrients
Potential side-effects of beets:
- Being high in oxalates, if taken in high amounts, can reduce the body’s ability to absorb some nutrients such as calcium. So when you are eating a high amount of beets or beetroot juice, make sure that you increase on your other calcium sources as well.
- Since they are high in natural sugar content hence having a glass full of beetroot juice, although very popular, should be avoided to control the body’s insulin levels.
Beetroot top or beet greens are young, leafy tops of the beetroot plant. Just like beetroot, beet greens are considered very healthy. The properties of beet greens are very much similar to most greens like spinach or kale. And, no doubt many of the properties of beetroots themselves, so much so that beet tops carry more minerals, vitamins, and health-benefiting pigment antioxidants than its root part, and yet they come as one of the very low calories leafy-greens. Although beet greens are edible at all the stages of the plant growth, they are at their best while the plant is young, and its stems are soft and tender.
Nutrition in beet greens:
- They are an excellent source of vitamin A, K, C, B-6. 100 g of fresh beet greens provide for 211% RDA(Recommended Dietary Allowance) of vitamin A, 333% RDA of vitamin K, 50% RDA of vitamin C.
- They are also a rich source of minerals like magnesium, copper, calcium, sodium, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.
- They are also a good source of glycine betaine. Betaine has a property of lowering the homocysteine level in the blood, which if present in high amounts causes platelets clot leading to heart diseases and strokes in the long term.
