Beetroot are good for you

Beetroot are a very important part of our daily diet. We grow as much as possible to have some everyday for lunch. I find the vacuum packed absolutely foul and I'm not keen on too much vinegar so don't like pickled either.

I looked on the web for more information about how good it is for you and found this:-

 

 

  Beetroot benefits

Beetroot is a dark red vegetable with an acquired taste which has had a lot of coverage in the news. It has been linked with better stamina, improved blood flood and lower blood pressure.
But what's the truth about beetroot?

Beetroot facts

The website lovebeetroot.co.uk says the vegetable became popular in Roman times and it was used to treat fever, constipation, wounds, skin problems - and was used as an aphrodisiac.
Most beetroot on sale is round and red, but yellow, white and stripy versions are available.
The beetroot taste is described as sweet, earthy and tender to eat. It is grown in the ground and is related to turnips, swedes and sugar beet.
Beetroot has featured in recipes from top chefs including Jamie Oliver and Heston Blumenthal.
If you're considering beetroot as one of your 5-a-day, it contains potassium, magnesium, iron, vitamins A, B6 and C, folic acid, carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants and soluble fibre.

Beetroot for blood pressure management

Researchers have known for some time that juice may help lower blood pressure, but in 2010 UK researchers revealed that nitrate is the special ingredient in beetroot which lowers blood pressure and may help to fight heart disease.
In a Queen Mary University of London study, healthy participants had to drink a glass of beetroot juice while others had a dummy (placebo) drink. Others took nitrate tablets.
Blood pressure was lowered within 24 hours in people who took nitrate tablets and those who drank beetroot juice.
The researchers admitted to BootsWebMD that beetroot juice is a love it or hate it kind of drink, but found people in the study didn't mind it so much when they were drinking it every day.
People with very high blood pressure can end up being on multiple tablets, so a more natural approach could prove popular if the initial research results are confirmed.
The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation and published online in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

Beetroot for the brain and dementia

Drinking beetroot juice increases blood flow to the brain in older people, which may be able to fight the progression of dementia, a 2010 study suggested.
Beetroot contains high concentrations of nitrates, which are converted into nitrites by bacteria in the mouth. Nitrites help open blood vessels in the body, increasing blood flow and oxygen to places lacking in oxygen.
Previous studies have shown that nitrites widen blood vessels, but US researchers writing in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry, the peer-reviewed journal of the Nitric Oxide Society, say theirs was the first to find that nitrites also increase blood flow to the brain.

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We want to be able to eat some for as many days as possible during the year. So early and late sowings are made in the poly-tunnel and two beds sown outside. We grow round and cylindrical. In some years we've had problems with mice who move in and eat around the tops while they are still in the ground. For some reason in other years we have no problem. This year was a good year.
To see what damage they do,  look here at Kevs' English Homestead blog from a few days ago  .

This morning we were able to get up most of the decent sized beet and store them in a box of sand for winter.

 We've even got room for the box in the new  bigger garden shed so I won't need to go right up to the workshop to fetch them. Another job done for winter. There are some small and giant ones left in the ground which will be cooked up for the next few weeks and finally when the weather turns wet/frosty they will be pulled up and put in the shed in a bucket where they will keep for another week or two. Then we will use what we have growing in the poly-tunnel before using these that are stored.

Before the beetroot storage job we had managed between us to sort out the cables so that we can put electric light on a timer in the big chicken shed. The mower trailer to the rescue again, carrying the cable box and  everything up to the top of the field. The hens have gone off lay a bit over the last few weeks so hopefully the extra light will help.

The final pumpkin was collected today at last. The trailer has been moved right out of the way until it's next needed. If we are offered some plants for giant pumpkins next year I shall say thanks but no thanks!

Thank you for all the interesting comments yesterday about preparing for bad weather. Living here near the coast we rarely get much snow and since our small back road started to be used by the community bus service taking old people to day centres etc one of the local farmers clears it with a snow plough. Shame really, I quite like the idea of being cut off for a week!

Back Tomorrow
Sue


Edited to add - Why has the first paragraph changed to capital letters. On the draft it's quite normal, post it and it changes to capitals - how weird is that?