Contents
For most people today beet is a common product. This vegetable is usually used to prepare such common dishes as borscht, vinaigrette and herring under a fur coat. If you go to a doctor with a question about the benefits of beets, he will confidently say that beets are not just a product for your favorite dishes.
Beets are recommended to almost everyone, without exception. It contains a large amount of nutrients and nutrients that are needed to keep the body in good shape and treat many diseases. To benefit from a root vegetable, when using it, you need to know how it affects the human body.
General benefits
The beetroot advantage comes from two factors. Firstly, the vegetable contains almost the entire table of elements of Mendeleev, and secondly, it contains trace elements that are not found in other vegetables.
1. Helps with constipation.
The fiber contained in beets has a mild effect on the digestion process and helps to free the body naturally from putrefactive bacteria.
2. Prevents obesity, liver problems.
The root vegetable is rich in the substance betaine, which is responsible for the presence of fats in the body and their elimination. Betaine also prevents harmful elements from entering the liver.
3. Treats anemia (anemia).
It is useful to include a vegetable in your diet to improve blood flow, since it contains iron, which is responsible for the activity of this process. Thanks to iron in the body, hemoglobin rises, the blood is saturated with oxygen, and it becomes more.
4. Good for the thyroid gland.
No other vegetable, except beets, contains such a large amount of iodine. Regular consumption of beets helps to restore the functioning of the thyroid gland.
5. Helps with sore blood vessels, problems with blood pressure.
In the modern world, we are all subject to regular stress, and they, as a rule, lead to vascular disease and high blood pressure. All this provokes the development of chronic pathologies such as hypertension, angina pectoris. Of course, medicine knows many drugs for these diseases.
But it is better to use a natural product. With the systematic use of the root crop, the vessels are cleaned, their elasticity increases. Plaques do not accumulate on the walls of blood vessels. It is enough to include beets in your menu, and you will always have clean vessels.
6. Eliminates problems with the stomach, intestines.
Due to improper nutrition, there are problems with the stomach, bowel function. To normalize bowel function, it is enough to drink half a glass of beet juice every morning on an empty stomach. And after a week you will notice a visible result.
If you have problems with stool, then it is advisable to include boiled beets in the diet, it helps to get rid of constipation. Pectin in the composition of the root vegetable facilitates the movement of food through the intestines, restores its peristalsis and promotes the activation of bile.
7. Fights vitamin deficiency.
The beet contains a large amount of vitamins and minerals. They fight vitamin deficiency, give strength and vigor.
8. Good for the circulatory system.
As mentioned above, beets are rich in iron. In terms of its content, it is not inferior to other fruits and vegetables, except for garlic. But the use of beets helps to thin the blood, remove excess cholesterol from it.
9. Helps the absorption of proteins and fats.
Beets contain nutrients such as betaine and betanin. These trace elements help to better assimilate animal proteins, improve liver function.
10. Treats colds.
A runny nose is treated with beet juice by instilling a drop of juice into each nostril. This treatment is ideal for young children as the product does not contain any chemicals. The juice was widely used in the treatment of pneumonia and pleurisy.
11. Prevents the development of a malignant tumor.
Doctors have long noticed that beetroot juice prevents the development of cancer cells and often a small tumor disappears without turning into metastases.
12. Beet tops are useful.
Benefit can be obtained not only from the root crop, but also from its tops. Beet greens are used for the following health problems:
- a weakened immune system;
- development of anemia;
- diabetes;
- chronic constipation;
- liver problems;
- stones in the kidneys;
- stress and constant insomnia;
- gout;
- joint problems.
In order to get rid of these problems, it is enough to make an infusion of fresh beet tops and drink it three times a day.
13. Cleans the intestines.
The invaluable benefit of beets is their unique ability to cleanse the intestines, where a large amount of waste always accumulates. This is usually due to the wrong lifestyle, the habit of eating on the run. As a result, the work of the whole organism is disrupted, the immune system is weakened. Eating beets at least three times a week helps to remove unnecessary things from the body.
14. It has a positive effect on the brain.
The advantage of the root vegetable is its positive effect on a part of the brain such as the pituitary gland. He is responsible for sexual activity. The vegetable also contains niacin and pantothenic acid. This composition perfectly nourishes the brain and restores its function, which is responsible for sexual desire. A glass of freshly squeezed beetroot juice is essential for those who have problems in their sex life.
15. Strengthens the immune system.
Beetroot perfectly protects and restores the immune system. It is considered an excellent prophylactic against many infections and colds.
16. Cleans the liver.
Using beets, you can significantly improve the function of the liver and the entire digestive system. Beets are recognized as an excellent natural antioxidant. It helps to remove unnecessary salt and heavy metals from the body, which are considered dangerous for male and female health.
Benefits for women
17. It has a beneficial effect on the reproductive system.
Scientists have proven that the regular use of beet juice or fresh beets has a beneficial effect on the female reproductive system. The nutrients in the root vegetable relieve pain during the menstrual cycle, restore it and eliminate the painful symptoms of menopause.
To shorten the duration of your menstrual cycle, you should drink beet juice once a day. You need to start taking it on the first day of the cycle.
18. Useful during pregnancy.
It is recommended to eat beets for pregnant women. Here it will be beneficial for both the mother and the baby. Beets supply the body with nutrients and vitamins. Prevents the risk of developing abnormalities in the baby, creates excellent conditions for the restoration of his nervous system.
19. Helps with breast cancer.
Chinese healers have been actively using beets for the treatment of breast cancer for many years. It is worth noting that the vegetable really helps to overcome this ailment.
20. Prevents female diseases.
Regular consumption of beets helps prevent the onset of many female diseases. Beets are especially recommended for the prevention of cystitis.
Skin Benefits
21. Gives a natural glow.
Eating beets every day helps you get a beautiful and healthy glow on your face.
22. Useful for aging skin.
Lotions from a decoction of fresh beets help to rejuvenate the skin, hide fine wrinkles.
23. Eliminates acne and acne.
Regular use of a beetroot mask helps to get rid of acne and teenage acne. It is also useful to make lotions from a decoction of beet tops on problem areas of the skin.
24. Moisturizes the skin.
Massage with beet leaf gruel gives the skin a healthy look. It becomes silky smooth. Usually, such rubbing should be carried out in a bath, so that later you can steam the body well.
25. It is a good body scrub.
Coarsely ground beets are considered to be an excellent natural body scrub that is good at exfoliating and rejuvenating dead skin.
Hair Benefits
26. Eliminates dandruff.
Beetroot masks help get rid of dandruff and restore the natural shine of the hair. They become obedient and silky.
27. Stimulates hair growth.
Regular consumption of beets strengthens the hair follicles, prevents hair loss and promotes rapid hair growth.
Benefits for men
28. Treats prostate adenoma.
Every third man over the age of 50 suffers from prostate adenoma. To get rid of this ailment, beets must be included in the menu.
The benefits of this vegetable are due to the presence of beta-carotene in its composition. It is he who is responsible for preventing the formation of a malignant tumor, which includes prostate adenoma. The root vegetable tends to muffle the development of the formed malignant formations.
29. Increases potency.
For a long time, doctors have proven the benefits of a vegetable for problems with erection, sexual impotence. To restore male strength and sex drive, fresh beet juice is useful. Regular use of the vegetable in its raw form not only restores sexual desire, but also maintains the youth of the body.
Beetroot eliminates and mitigates the effects of alcohol abuse and smoking. Most often, problems with potency bother smokers and drinkers.
Harm and contraindications
1. Increased acidity.
It is not recommended to get carried away with either boiled or fresh beets for gastritis, which is accompanied by high acidity of the stomach. The vegetable can make it even more acidic.
2. Chronic diseases.
In case of gout, arthritis or low blood pressure, it is forbidden to drink fresh beet juice. In this case, you can limit yourself to small portions of boiled beets.
3. Osteoporosis, urolithiasis.
Beets interfere with proper calcium absorption. Therefore, people suffering from osteoporosis need to exclude beetroot dishes from their diet. Beets contain oxalic acid, so it is undesirable for people with urolithiasis to use the root crop.
4. Diarrhea.
Beetroot is not recommended for people with diarrhea or chronic stool incontinence, as it has a laxative effect.
Chemical composition of the product
Nutritional value of beets (100 g) and percentage of daily value:
- The nutritional value
- Vitamins
- Macronutrients
- Trace Elements
- calories 42 kcal – 2,95%;
- proteins 1,5 g – 1,83%;
- fats 0,1 g – 0,15%;
- carbohydrates 8,8 g – 6,88%;
- dietary fiber 2,5 g – 12,5%;
- water 86 g – 3,36%.
- And 2 mcg – 0,2%;
- beta-carotene 0,01 mg – 0,2%;
- S 10 mg – 11,1%;
- E 0,1 mg – 0,7%;
- V1 0,02 mg – 1,3%;
- V2 0,04 mg – 2,2%;
- V5 0,12 mg – 2,4%;
- V6 0,07 mg – 3,5%;
- B9 13 μg – 3,3%;
- PP 0,4 mg – 2%.
- potassium 288 mg – 11,5%;
- calcium 37 mg – 3,7%;
- magnesium 22 mg – 5,5%;
- sodium 46 mg – 3,5%;
- sera 7 mg – 0,7%;
- phosphorus 43 mg – 5,4%;
- chlorine 43 mg – 1,9%.
- iron 1,4 mg – 7,8%;
- iodine 7 mcg – 4,7%;
- cobalt 2 mcg – 20%;
- manganese 0,66 mg – 33%;
- copper 140 μg – 14%;
- molybdenum 10 μg – 14,3%;
- fluorine 20 μg – 0,5%;
- chromium 20 mcg – 40%;
- zinc 0,43 mg – 3,6%.
conclusions
Beets are tasty, healthy and popular. However, no product is free from side effects and contraindications. Therefore, be sure to consider them before you start consuming beets. And do not abuse it in any way.
Useful Properties
- Helps relieve constipation.
- Helps with obesity, liver problems.
- Treats anemia (anemia).
- It is useful in diseases of the thyroid gland.
- Helps with sore blood vessels, problems with blood pressure.
- Eliminates stomach and intestinal problems.
- Helps with vitamin deficiency.
- It has a beneficial effect on the circulatory system.
- Facilitates the absorption of proteins and fats.
- Treats colds.
- Prevents malignant tumor.
- Beet tops are useful.
- Cleans the intestines.
- It has a beneficial effect on the brain.
- Strengthens immunity.
- Cleans the liver.
- Good for skin and hair.
- Good for both men and women.
Harmful properties
- Increased acidity.
- Chronic diseases
- Osteoporosis, urolithiasis.
- Diarrhea.
Additional useful information about beets
How to use
Many tasty and healthy dishes can be prepared from beets.
1. Borsch.
Everyone knows about this dish; borsch with a lot of beets turns out to be not only rich in color, but also very tasty and healthy.
2. Caviar.
Caviar can be made not only from zucchini, but also from beets. Usually this is a preparation for the winter, and they use it not only as an independent dish, but also as a snack.
3. Salad.
There are a lot of options for beetroot salads. The most common among them is the vinaigrette, beet salad with garlic and prunes. Salad “Broom” has become very popular among losing weight, where beets, carrots, cabbage and apples are taken in equal quantities.
4. Deruny.
This is a kind of potato pancakes, but only beets are taken as a base instead of potatoes. The dish turns out to be tasty and juicy. It is customary to serve it with sour cream.
5. Cutlets.
You can make delicious diet cutlets from beets, which you can eat even at night without worrying about your figure.
6. Boiled beets.
In order for beetroot dishes to turn out delicious, you need to know how to cook it, since most of the recipes suggest using a boiled root vegetable. There are several secrets on how to cook beets not only quickly, but also to preserve all the useful properties in it.
Experienced chefs know that beets will cook faster from a sharp temperature drop. To do this, the root crop must first be boiled over high heat for 10 minutes from the moment the water boils. After that, you need to put the beets under cold running water. Soak it in cold water for 15 minutes. That’s all, the beets are ready.
You can also cook a vegetable in the microwave. To do this, wash the root vegetable, dry it and wrap it in a bag. In the microwave, at high power, beets can be cooked in 15 minutes.
How to choose
Not every person has the opportunity to grow vegetables, so they have to be bought at a store or market. To buy a quality root vegetable, you need to know a few secrets.
- The average beet size is 12 cm in diameter.
- If the tubers are too large, then this is a fodder beet intended for farm animals.
- A large root crop may also indicate that chemical fertilizers were used to grow it. Therefore, it is better to buy beets of medium size.
- Good quality beets have a spherical or oval shape.
- Leaves streaked with red.
- The table root vegetable has a dark red, burgundy or red-purple color.
- If you look at such a fruit in a cut, then there should be no white spots on it.
- If there are spots, then the vegetable is of poor quality, and it was grown at an accelerated rate using chemical fertilizers.
- A good quality root crop must be uniform and firm.
- Green shoots at the base indicate that the product is young.
How to store
- The temperature at which the root crop will be stored is an important condition for proper storage. In the room where beets are stored, they should not exceed 2-3 degrees and should not fall below zero.
- At low temperatures, the roots will freeze.
- Too high a temperature leads to the germination of the root crop. Beets will soon become flabby and practically unusable.
- It has long been noticed that some varieties of root crops retain their qualities well during storage, while others are not stored for more than one month.
- Large beets are not suitable for storage.
- Such varieties as salad, Egyptian and cold-resistant varieties are well stored.
- With proper storage of the root crop, it will feel great from autumn to spring.
- The storage area must be well ventilated.
- Humidity should be no higher than 90%.
- The place should be dark and cool. This is usually a cellar.
- You can store beets in fabric bags or boxes. The second option is considered the most optimal and convenient.
- It is undesirable to put vegetables in two rows, this can lead to dampness of root crops, which will negatively affect their shelf life.
- During the time when the beets are stored, you need to periodically inspect the root crops for rot or mold. If this happened, then they need to be removed urgently.
History of occurrence
Since the second millennium BC. NS. beets were grown in the Mediterranean as a vegetable and medicinal plant. For the first time this vegetable was mentioned in the writings of ancient Russia in the XNUMXth century. In Russia, beets began to be actively cultivated already in the XIV century. Beginning in the XNUMXth century, it was divided into a stern and a dining room. In the XNUMXth century, hybrids of fodder beets were bred, from which they began to cultivate sugar beets.
The ancestor of table beets, as well as sugar and fodder beets, is the wild chard – native to the Mediterranean. Wild beets are still found in Iran, along the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas, and can be found in India and China.
Beetroot has long been known in Ancient Persia, but there it was considered a symbol of quarrels and gossip. Be that as it may, this did not prevent the Persians from using beets for food as a leafy vegetable and even as a medicinal plant. It was the Persians who first began to grow beets as a root vegetable, followed by the Turks and the ancient Romans.
How and where is it grown
Beets are considered a biennial plant. But annual species are more common. Beets can be used for dining, fodder and sugar beets. The first type of root vegetable is intended for people, the second is fed to animals, and the third is used to make sugar. It is worth noting that, unlike the other two types, sugar beets are white, not burgundy. Beets have been used for food since ancient times.
Beets are grown in the garden beds. It is better to choose a place that is illuminated. Sowing seeds begins in mid-May. It is very important that the soil is always moist, but excessive moisture can lead to rotting of the tubers. If the soil is rich in mineral fertilizers, then there is no need to fertilize it additionally. Before planting, it is advisable to soak beet seeds for an hour in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Harvested in the fall.
For long-term storage of tubers, the tops must be carefully removed at the base. There are no problems with growing beets, insects do not eat them. In our country, beets are grown everywhere.
Among other countries, Ukraine is the leader in the cultivation of sugar root crops; there are also suitable lands and climate in Belarus and Georgia. In some countries of Western Europe, beets are also grown; root crop production is established in Africa, America and the Middle East.
Interesting Facts
- The root crop grows everywhere except Antarctica.
- In ancient Greece, beets were presented as a sacrifice to the god Apollo.
- In Russia, the favorite dish was baked beets, which were served with tea.
- In Persia, it was believed that beets were a symbol of gossip and discord.
- The word “beet” is translated as regal.
- In Eastern Europe, plague was treated with beets.
- Assyrian texts describe the cultivation of beets in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But they are one of the seven wonders of the world.
- In the Roman era, beets were used as an aphrodisiac.
- Beetroot was held in high esteem by the Romans, it was even collected as a tribute from the subordinates of the Germans.
- Our ancestors used beets as a blush.
- The heaviest beet in the world was grown in Somerset (county in England) in 2001. She weighed 23,4 kg.
- Many cultures have a belief that if a man and a woman eat the same beets, they will love each other.