And the ‘Beet’ Goes On

When I was young, my taste buds resembled that of a typical kid: I didn’t like vegetables. But as I matured, my taste buds also matured, to the point where there are few vegetables I don’t truly love.

Notice I said “few.” Because believe it or not, there are some vegetables that, try as I might, I have a hard time enjoying. One of them is the beet.

My lack of enthusiasm for beets is not without precedent. After all, despite the beet being around for time immemorial, it didn’t gain attention until it was found to be a concentrated source of sugar (a 19th century find). And before that, the greens attached to the beet – not the beet itself – were used as food. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the beet’s deliciousness, is it?

For those who do enjoy beets – and while I can’t say I eat them regularly, I do at the very least eat them occasionally – rest assured in the fact that they are in the upper echelon of vegetables for heart health and arthritis.

Before I get to that, though, for the calorie-conscious, it doesn’t get much ‘beeter’ than beets (one medium beet has about 50 calories total). Secondly, for those who prefer their vegetables cooked, you can’t beat the beet; it’s one of the few vegetables that holds on to its nutritional muster despite being cooked (However, the anti-cancer benefits of beets are diminished significantly if cooked for too long).

For example, one nutrient beets are particularly packed with is betaine. Studies suggest that people whose diets are rich in betaine – found most prevalently in beets, broccoli and spinach – are at a reduced risk of heart disease because it tempers the amount of homocysteine that can accumulates in the blood. In other words, betaine prevents the amino acid (homocysteine) from reaching toxic levels.

Betaine is also believed to play an important role in the prevention of inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury, but it can be detrimental to long term health when this natural response continues unabated. This happens more often than you’d think, especially when inflammation is believed to be one of the chief culprits for osteoarthritis diagnoses. Inflammation diminishes the amount of cartilage protecting the joints, thus causing the painful side effects associated with arthritis.

But inflammation is as much of a concern among beet eaters. In fact, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that people whose diets are rich in foods like beets have “inflammatory markers” that are 20 percent lower than those whose diets are low in betaine.

Two more things about beets before I ‘beet’ it, both having to do with their color: While their rich color is enjoyable to look at in a prepared dish or salad, you probably don’t want that color all over your hands. As such, it’s wise to wear gloves when handling cooked beets.

The final note about beets: they turn your urine red. So if you find your urine to be unusually dark, fear not, that’s just the beet making its mark (like your hands, your urine won’t stay red for long).

Whether it’s the folate or the phosphorus, the vitamin C or the vitamin B, from a nutritional perspective, you simply can’t ‘beet’ the beet.