Health Benefits of Beets









Health Benefits of Beets

How To Cook Beets..

Remember all those legendary Russian centenarians? Beets, frequently consumed either pickled or in borscht, the traditional Russian soup, may be one reason behind their long and healthy lives. These colorful root vegetables contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.

Beets Promote Optimal Health

The pigment that gives beets their rich, purple-crimson color-betacyanin-is also a powerful cancer-fighting agent.
Beets' potential effectiveness against colon cancer, in particular, has been demonstrated in several studies.
How to cook beets.....
In one study, animals under the double stress of chemically induced colon cancer and high cholesterol were divided into two groups. One group received a diet high in beet fiber while the other group served as a control. The beet fiber-fed animals rose to the challenge by increasing their activity of two antioxidant enzymes in the liver, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione-S-transferase. The liver is the body's primary detoxification organ where toxic substances are
broken down and eliminated, a process that generates a lot of free radicals. Glutathione peroxidase and glutathione-S-transferase are the bodyguards for liver cells, protecting them from free radical attack, so they can continue to protect us.

In other animal studies, scientists have noted that animals fed beet fiber had an increase in their number of colonic CD8 cells, special immune cells responsible for detecting and eliminating abnormal cells. With the increased surveillance provided by these additional CD8 cells, the animals in one of the studies given beet fiber had fewer pre-cancerous changes.
In stomach cancer patients, when scientists compared the effects of fruit and vegetable juices on the formation of nitrosamines, cancer-causing compounds produced in the stomach from chemicals called nitrates, beet juice was found to be a potent inhibitor of the cell mutations caused by these compounds. Nitrates are commonly used as a chemical preservative in processed meats.
How to cook beets...

How To Make Sauteed Beets













How To Make Sauteed Beets
How to Cook Beets

When cooking beets for dinner, choose sauteed beets whenever the other foods that are part of the meal are on the dry side (such as grains or rice). The cooking technique you use should always be considered in relation to the entire meal.

How To Cook Beets Instructions :

Place a frying pan with a lid over medium heat.
Add a little extra-virgin olive oil (1 teaspoon should do it).
When the oil is hot, add pre-peeled diced or chopped beets. Stir.
Add a few Tablespoons of water** and cover with lid.
Saute for 5-15 minutes, depending on how small you have made them. Beets are done when they're tender to your liking. Serve the sauted beets..
How To Cook Beets..
How to cook beets: beet-salad.

Baked Beets










Baked Beets

How to cook beets..
Baked beets are tasty and allow you to simply get them cooking and forget about them until the timer goes off.
Especially helpful if you don't have any room left on your stove top for one more pot or pan! Plus, they're very simple to make.
Unlike other cooking methods, there is no need to scrub the beets with water, because the water would cause the beets to steam. So simply clean off any dirt with a paper towel, if desired. Trim the roots and stems to 1/2", but there's no need to cut the beets farther than that.
Place the beets in an oven-proof baking dish and cover (foil works fine). Bake at 400 degrees for one hour, or until tender.
Remove from oven and let cool. Then simply slip the skins and root off with your fingers. You can leave the tail on if you're eating the beets whole, or take it off.
Beets can be chopped, sliced or diced at this point.
How to cook beets...

Beet Salad.

Beet Salad.

INSTRUCTIONS
Take fresh beets and cut the leaves off (beet leaves are also edible and nutritious, they are said to taste good steamed, but I've never cooked them). Wash the beets in case there is some dry dirt stuck to them. Place the beets in a cooking pot with water and boil for 40 minutes to an hour. The larger your beetroots, the longer the cooking time.
How to cook beets..

How to Cook Beets 1












How to Cook Beets 1


Cut off the beets stalk. You can cook the stalk like chard, if you like.
Cut off the pointy tip.
Rinse the beets.
Place the beets in a pot and submerge with waterBoil for 45 minutes, or until you can pierce the beets with a fork, all the way to the middle of the beet.
Remove beets from the water. Let cool until you can handle the beets. Skin them with a butter knife.
That’s how to cook beets! They are super good cooked this way. I always serve beets with steak, and often with a hearty pasta. After all, like I already said, beets keep your plumbing clear.
health-benefits-of-beets