Beetroot (Beta vulgaris)  -  The red beet, commonly known as garden beet, is a juicy root vegetable. Beets have several varieties, which are grouped according to their shapes.  They can be flat, short-top shaped, deep oblate to round, globular to oval, or half long to long. 

History:  Beetroot has been cultivated for about 4,000 years.  It was probably the ancient Babylonians who started to use it first.  Early Greeks and Romans used the root for its medicinal properties and the leaves as vegetables.   Since Roman, times beetroot juice has also been considered an aphrodisiac.  The scientific explanation for that belief is that the beet is rich in the mineral boron, which plays an important role in the production of human sex hormones.  The Greek doctor Hippocrates (460-377 BC), often called "the Father of Medicine," advocated the use of beet leaves as bindings for wounds.  Beetroot held an important place in Renaissance (14th-16th century) medicine and was often used for illnesses relating to digestion and the blood.  In medieval England, beetroot juice or broth was recommended as an easily digested food for the aged, weak, or infirm.  Culpepper notes in his seventeenth century Herball that “the red beet is good to stay the bloody flux, woman’s courses and the whites, and to help the yellow jaundice.”  In mythology, Aphrodite is said to have eaten beets to retain her beauty.  In folk magic, if a woman and man eat from the same beet, they will fall in love.  In Africa, beets are used as an antidote to cyanide poisoning.

Rich in:  Beets contain an abundance of minerals: potassium, phosphorus, calcium, sulphur, iodine, iron, manganese, chlorine, and copper, as well as traces of the rare metals rubidium and caesium; vitamins  B1, B2, niacin, B6, B12, C, P, and beta carotene; flavonoids; natural sugar, and a good quality and quantity of amino acids.

Internal use:  The part of the beet used medicinally is the root. Beetroot contains anti-tumor, emollient, nutritive, rejuvenative, stimulating, resistance-enhancing properties.  Beetroot helps normalize the ph balance of the body and build the blood.  It also increases the uptake of oxygen by as much as 400 percent.  Beetroot has been used as a supportive therapy in diseases of the liver and fatty liver.  It supports and stimulates the liver, gallbladder, kidney, and spleen and increases the flow of bile.  Beets have been used successfully in conditions of acne, anemia, cancer, diverticulitis, dysmenorrhea, hepatitis, jaundice, nausea, hypoglycemia, leukemia, poor circulation, diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, and dysentery.  Beetroot helps combat acidosis and aids the natural process of elimination and detoxification.  The beet juice, being an excellent solvent for inorganic calcium deposits, is valuable in the treatment of hypertension, arteriosclerosis, heart trouble, and varicose veins.

How to prepare:  To prepare beets, remove the leaves and wash the roots in cold water using a soft vegetable brush.  It takes about two hours to cook the beets in the oven or boil them in salt water.  The skin should be removed before the use.  My favorite beet salad is boiled and grated beets with pickles and an organic salad dressing and lots of sunflower seeds (to prepare the seeds correctly, see the heading “sunflower seeds” in this book).  The leaves, like all green vegeta­bles, should be cooked with a small amount of water and only for a short time.  

Beetroot can be grated and eaten raw.  Raw beetroot may be peeled, diced, and sautéed in butter.  It can also be added to salads.  Very small beetroots are preserved in vinegar and used in making pickles.

To prepare a great booster after an illness, juice one medium beetroot, one to two apples and two to three medium carrots (no need to cook the beetroot first).

To increases its medicinal value, add a teaspoonful of lime juice to beetroot juice.  It can be used as a liquid food in case of jaundice, hepatitis, nausea and vomiting due to biliousness, diarrhea, dysentery, and other diseases.  Fresh beet juice mixed with a tablespoonful of honey and taken every morning before breakfast helps the healing of gastric ulcer.

Beet juice, combined with the juices of carrot and cucumber, is one of the finest cleansing materials for the kidneys and gall bladder. It is highly beneficial in all disorders relating to these two organs.

External use:  The water in which beet roots and tops have been boiled makes an excellent application for boils, skin inflammation, and outbreaks of pimples and pustules (in this case the white beet is better).  For an irritable skin the body should be sponged down with a mixture of three parts of beet water to one part of white vinegar.  This mixture is useful also as a skin wash in case of measles and eruptive fevers and as a hair wash in case of scurf or dandruff.  

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