Gina Jackson Personal Fitness

I really have not been a fan of beets in my salad. I love the color, but personally haven’t been crazy about the vegetable itself. However, Martha Rose Shulman, New York Times Health columnist wrote a couple of articles this week about the health benefits of beets – and the greens – that made me take a second a look at using the food for health benefits.

A few weeks ago I posted the 11 Best Foods We are Not Eating, with beets at the tops of the list.  Here, an excerpt of the article, “Beets: The New Spinach,” By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN Published: August 4, 2008

Recently in the Well blog, Tara Parker-Pope wondered if she has been missing out on beets, which one researcher recently identified as nutritional powerhouses, high in folate, manganese and potassium.

If you, like Ms. Parker-Pope, have never made beets, then yes, you really are missing out. It’s easy to love fresh beets, and not just for their nutritional advantages. Beets have an earthy, hard-to-define flavor like no other vegetable’s, one reason they so often appear on high-end restaurant menus. But they’re perfect at home, too, and so this week we’ll be offering some simple ways to prepare them.

Beets are available year-round, but the best time to buy them is June through October, when they are at their most tender. Look for unblemished bulbs with sturdy, unwilted greens. In addition to the usual red variety, you may find beautiful golden beets, and pink-and-white striated Chioggia beets. Unless a red color is important to the dish, either type can be used interchangeably with red beets.

Often purchasers ask that the greens be chopped off. That’s a mistake — the greens bring an additional set of nutrients to the plate, most notably beta-carotene, vitamin C, iron and calcium. Take your beets home from the farmer’s market with the greens intact.

Roasting is the easiest way to cook beets, not least because the skins will slip right off. Cooking them this way is easy.

Benefits of Beets you ask?

“People whose diets supplied the highest average intake of choline (found in egg yolk and soybeans), and its metabolite betaine (found naturally in vegetables such as beets and spinach), have levels of inflammatory markers at least 20% lower than subjects with the lowest average intakes, report Greek researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Detopoulou P, Panagiotakos DB, et al.)

Compared to those whose diets contained <250 mg/day of choline, subjects whose diets supplied >310 mg of choline daily had, on average:

• 22% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
• 26% lower concentrations of interleukin-6
• 6% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha

Compared to those consuming <260 mg/day of betaine, subjects whose diets provided >360 mg per day of betaine had, on average:

• 10% lower concentrations of homocysteine
• 19% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
• 12% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha

Each of these markers of chronic inflammation has been linked to a wide range of conditions including heart disease, osteoporosis, cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, and type-2 diabetes.

In an accompanying editorial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition entitled, “Is there a new component of the Mediterranean diet that reduces inflammation?,” Steven Zeisel from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill noted that choline and betaine work together in the cellular process of methylation, which is not only responsible for the removal of homocysteine, but is involved in turning off the promoter regions of genes involved in inflammation.

“Exposure to oxidative stress is a potent trigger for inflammation. Betaine is formed from choline within the mitochondria , and this oxidation contributes to mitochondrial redox status,” Zeisel continued.

“If the association between choline and betaine and inflammation can be confirmed in studies of other populations, an interesting new dietary approach may be available for reducing chronic diseases associated with inflammation,” he concluded.

Recommended daily intakes of choline were set in 1998 at 550 milligrams per day for men and 425 milligrams a day for women. No RDI has been set for betaine, which, since it is a metabolite of choline, is not considered an essential nutrient.

Practical Tip: Egg yolks are the richest source of choline, followed by soybeans. Beets, spinach and whole wheat products are primary sources of betaine. (Olthof MR, van Vliet T, et al. J Nutr)

And Martha Rose Shulman gave this mouth watering receipe in the NYTimes, August 9, 2008

This simple classic (which can be made with any type of green) is great on its own as a side dish, or you can toss the greens with pasta, add them to an omelet or risotto, or use them in a gratin or a quiche.

• 1 pound beet greens (2 large or 3 small bunches)
• Salt
• 1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (optional)
• Freshly ground pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you stem the greens and wash the leaves in 2 rinses of water. When the water comes to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the greens. Blanch for 2 minutes, until tender. Transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water, then drain and squeeze the water out from its leaves. Chop coarsely.

2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the garlic and hot red pepper flakes (if using) and cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant and translucent, 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in the greens. Stir for a couple of minutes, until the greens are nicely seasoned with garlic and oil. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the heat, and serve.

Note: Some people enjoy a few drops of lemon juice with their cooked greens, so you might want to pass a plate of lemon wedges.

Advance preparation: The blanched greens will keep in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

Yield: Serves 2 to 4

Approximate Nutritional Information: 211 calories per serving; 151 calories from fat; total fat: 16.8g; saturated fat 3.8g; cholesterol 13mg; sodium 282mg; total carbohydrates 11.6g; dietary fiber: 2.5g; sugars 8.6g; protein 5.3g. (Data provided by Calorie-count.com.)