Discover the surprising health benefits of beets, how to eat them raw, and why your brain, heart, and muscles will thank you
The humble beet, when steamed, boiled, roasted, pickled, borscht’d—but especially served raw—is nutritious and offers many health benefits. Beets may stain your cutting board—and your fingers—but they might also save your heart, sharpen your brain, and get you through leg day. Here’s how.
Why Beets Are Healthy
If you’ve never considered beets for breakfast, snacks, or potluck food, these facts may spark your imagination:
- Research has demonstrated that eating beets, especially raw, or drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, and improve both exercise performance and blood flow to the brain—probably because of the high concentration of nitrates in beets.
Our bodies eventually convert nitrates to nitric oxide, a compound that relaxes and opens blood vessels.
- Research suggests that the red and yellow pigments found in beets (betalains) may help fight arthritis, several cancers, neurogenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, and liver disease.
- Beet greens are also highly nutritious and also contain the carotenoid pigments beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, important for eye health.
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How to Prepare Beets
Cooking beets won’t give you the same health benefits because heat destroys betalain pigments and hampers nitrates, but it’s still good for your health.
To preserve the maximum health benefits, grate raw beets into salads or steam/roast beets just long enough to tenderize them.
Beet juice is also a fantastic way to get the health benefits.
Finally, beet greens are delicious raw in salads or lightly steamed.
- Here’s a recipe for a delicious beet salad using both the root and the greens.
- And click here to learn how to make Beet Kvass—a probiotic tonic!
Growing Beets
If you have a little space, beets are easy to grow, even in containers. They attract few pests or diseases, grow quickly, and come in many shades of red, pink, and yellow, as well as striped.
See our Beets Growing Guide.
Note: The betalain pigments in raw or cooked red beets may cause the urine or stool to turn pink or even bright red for a day or two. The amount of excreted pigment depends on the pH of the stomach and how long the food remains there.
Thanks for resurrecting this question! Yellow beets and red beets are both nutritional powerhouses, but you are right that the yellow-orange hue of yellow beets offers some different benefits when compared to red beets. Yellow beets have more vitamin C and A, beta-carotene, and lycopene. Aside from nutrition, they also taste less "earthy" and are easier to peel.
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