An overview of a root vegetable known for its beneficial properties - boiled beets: how to choose and cook, chemical composition and calorie content, benefits, interesting facts. Beetroot is a vegetable herbal crop, it is grown almost everywhere (except Antarctica), used for medicinal, cosmetic purposes, and delicious and beautiful dishes are prepared. They began to cook the root vegetable since ancient times, and they also understood long ago: boiled beets are better than raw. It retains all the nutrients that are raw, but it is tastier, faster and more fully absorbed, shows its taste, is combined with almost all products (meat, vegetables, berries, fruits). Low-calorie dietary product, recommended for those wishing to lose weight. How to cook it correctly, how to use it, the most delicious recipes - let's figure it out.
The benefits of boiled beets
The cooked root vegetable is easy to digest because its coarse fiber has softened during cooking. It contains simple carbohydrates (di- and monosaccharides) - fast calories that do not need to be processed, but provide energy to our body. Vegetable tubers contain a lot of fiber and dietary fiber, and this is the normalization of digestion, cleansing of toxins and toxins, freeing the blood from bad cholesterol, removing excess accumulated salts and fluids.
The normal cholesterol level is influenced by vitamin PP or the niacin content in boiled beets. Vitamin A maintains visual acuity, by the way, it is supplemented by beta-carotene - an antioxidant and anti-aging of cells. A whole group of B vitamins improve metabolic processes, the work of internal organs and the locomotor apparatus (muscles), the work of the nervous system. Boiled root vegetable - beets are useful as food and as a cosmetic applied externally for skin, nails, hair. Folic acid contained in a vegetable is involved in cell synthesis, DNA production, and amino acid metabolism. B9 is prescribed to pregnant women for the full formation of the fetus.
Boiled beets contain trace elements useful for bones, immunity, nerve fibers, blood. The content of iron in this root vegetable is especially useful for hematopoietic processes. Potassium is useful for normal muscle function, and sodium is necessary for water-salt balance.
The Latin name for beets Beta is not just that, there are a lot of betaine and betadine in the vegetable (those same dyes). They also have a beneficial effect on lowering bad cholesterol in the blood, improve liver function and fat metabolism. Boiled beets are good for women with thyroid problems and blood disorders. The substances contained in this root vegetable have antitumor properties, remove radiation.
A particular benefit of boiled beets for women is weight loss. It has a diuretic and laxative effect, while it is easily absorbed and has a pleasant taste, combined with meat, other vegetables and fruits. The most popular, at the same time healthy and dietary dishes: borscht with beef, salad with garlic and pickled cucumber, salad with prunes and mayonnaise, vinaigrette, etc., various salads from grated boiled beets. It is useful to drink beet juice, but made from fresh root vegetables.
The chemical composition and calorie content of beets
Unlike fresh beets, boiled beets are better absorbed. Its chemical composition also contains useful vitamins and minerals, mono- and disaccharides, dietary fiber. Healthy, tasty and dietary. 100 grams of boiled beets contains 44 kcal.
- proteins 1, 7 g
- fats 0.2 g
- carbohydrates up to 8 g
- boiled beets contain about 87 g of water
- food fiber - 2 g
- almost 8 g of mono - and disaccharides
- saturated fatty acids 0.03 g
Vitamins:
- A - 2 μg
- B1 - 0.026 mg
- B2 - 0.041 mg
- B5 - 0, 0143 mg
- B6 - 0.069 mg
- B9 - about 80 mcg
- E - 0.038 mg
- K - 0.22 mcg
- C - about 4 mg
- PP - 0, 329 mg
- Beta-carotene - 0.02 mg
- Choline - about 6 mg
Micro and macro elements:
- Manganese - 0.33 mg
- Copper - 73.9 mcg
- Iron - 0.8 mg
- Selenium - 0.71 mcg
- Zinc - 0.36 mg
- Calcium - about 16 mg
- Sodium - 77.2 mg
- Magnesium - 22.9 mg
- Potassium - 305.2 mg
- Phosphorus - about 40 mg
How are beets chosen and cooked?
Any product is good fresh, that is, the harvested harvest of vegetables is good when freshly harvested (or at least this year). Those who are accustomed to taking care of their health plant and grow vegetables, berries, fruits themselves; those who do not have the opportunity go to their acquaintances at the market. But those who are not particularly worried about the content of nitrates in products go to the store. For example, we belong to the latter, and we go to the store for beets. The root crop should be ripe, but not overripe, cracked and excessively hard. Ripeness is judged by its leaves: bright green with burgundy veins and large enough. If you choose beets in a store (where they do not have tops and a long root), then be more careful about the color: neither light (pink) nor dark (purple), or even worse with rotten spots, are not suitable for cooking. The color of the beet is dark burgundy; if the fruit is not washed, then the brown color will be like a bloom on the surface. The size of the vegetable is most suitable - medium (9-13 cm in diameter). In order to preserve its rich, beautiful bright burgundy color during cooking, the root crop must retain its entire "tail", the tops are cut off.
Prepare the selected beet tubers for cooking as follows. Naturally, they must be washed thoroughly! It is to wash, leaving the peel for cooking. If you clean it and put it in water, the result will be bright, beautiful water and a faded tuber. The tops are cut, but shallow so that no open pits remain, it is better to leave the "tail", or at least cut it off, but not entirely.
Put the peeled beet tubers in cold water. It will take a long time to cook, if in a regular saucepan it takes about an hour and there is a need to add boiling water all the time. Better to use a multi- or pressure cooker, the cooking time is cut in half. The readiness of the vegetable is checked by touch, the boiled tuber is pierced with a sharp object (knife, fork): soft - ready.
It is harmful to leave the finished product in the open air - useful substances are destroyed, vitamin C goes through this process especially quickly. In general, you need to store boiled beets in the refrigerator for no more than 72 hours, at a positive temperature the product will deteriorate within 24 hours.
Interesting facts about beets
- Nitrates are harmful substances that enter our body with fresh vegetables. But, if a vegetable (beet) is boiled, then their quantity will be much reduced or completely destroyed.
- Healthy beets were also used as decorative cosmetics: the girls rubbed her pale cheeks. Thanks to the coloring agents, the cheeks were really bright.
- Colorants are used in the food industry and are added to add a pleasant shade to sausages, sauces (ketchups), cake creams, etc.
- Breeders have long been engaged in breeding beautiful varieties of beets. Today, in addition to the bright burgundy variety, you can buy yellow, striped and even white beets.
Find out more about boiled beets in this video interview with a dietitian:
