Keeping Time to the Beet of Nutrition

At a great summer picnic a couple of weeks ago, one of the guests brought a beet salad that was absolutely delicious. A couple of the other guests started asking questions about whether beets were high in calories and what kind of nutritional content they had.

This is an occupational hazard of writing a food column. But then we thought: Well, if there are that many questions, it’s probably a good topic for a column. So here’s some of what we know about beets.

Beets actually have the highest sugar content of any vegetable, yet a cup of steamed, sliced beets has only about 60 calories. The rest of the nutritional picture is also pretty good: Beets contain modest amounts of calcium, vitamin C, potassium, B vitamins (including folacin), iron and fiber. Despite their dark red color, they are not high in carotenoids.

Almost 95% of the beets grown in the United States are processed for canning and end up in a variety of plain, pickled, sliced, diced and spiced versions. The other 5% that you are likely to see in the store have globe-shaped roots, with dark red flesh and dark green leaves with either green or red veins. Lately we’ve been seeing some yellow or white beets around, but these are considered specialty foods--they’re hard to find and are often expensive. When you can find them, however, they make a beautiful dish combined with the red ones.

Fresh beets are grown in 30 of the 50 states. The peak months are June through October, and at that time you can find young beets with small, tender roots. These are the best for cooking whole. As the season moves along, the beets have been stored for a while, and they may be bigger and less tender than what you will find earlier.

The early crop is usually sold in bunches with the tops attached or with the greens clipped off. By the way, beet greens used to be more highly prized than the beets themselves because they are much more nutritious than the roots. The young, tender greens can be used in salads or can be steamed quickly and tossed with a little rice vinegar and pepper to make a good side dish.

In general, the smaller the beets, the more tender they are. If the small ones--about 1 1/2 inches in diameter--are not available, medium-sized beets are OK for most cooking purposes, but once they get big--over 2 1/2 inches in diameter--they will be tough, woody and pretty much inedible.

Make sure that the beets are smooth, hard, round and a healthy deep color. The surface should be unbruised and free of cuts and dents. The long taproot (extending from the bulb) should be slender. If the leaves are still on and you’re planning to eat them, they should be small (less than 8 inches) and dark green. The leaves deteriorate more quickly than the roots, so if they are wilted and yellow but the roots look good, just cut the greens off and throw them away. If the tops are cut off, make sure that you keep about half an inch of the stem and 2 inches of the taproot on when cooking. This will keep the color from bleeding.

Once you get beets home from the market, clip the tops (saving the stems and taproots) and store the unwashed roots in a plastic bag for up to three weeks. The greens can be stored the same way, but they will not last as long.

To prepare beets, scrub them gently and rinse them well, but be careful not to break the skin. Do not cut or peel them before cooking, because the color will bleed all over everything. It makes a very effective dye. Beets are done when they can be easily pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Once they are cooked, drain them well, cool them under cold water and peel them. You can then slice them up or serve them whole. Adding vinegar or lemon juice will keep them bright red.

There are a number of ways to cook beets. The most time-consuming is baking, which takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours in a 350- to 400-degree oven, but it does preserve more of the nutrients. After baking in a foil wrap, let them stand until they’re cool enough to handle.

Boiling beets will sacrifice some of the color and the nutrients, but it is the most common way to cook them. Just put them in a pot of boiling water, cover and simmer until they are tender. This can take from 40 minutes to 2 hours depending on the size and age of the beets.

Microwaving can be done in about 10 minutes using one-quarter of a cup of liquid to a pound of beets in a baking dish. Cover them with plastic wrap and cook on high.

Steaming works for tiny beets, even with the leaves attached. Use just a little water and add lemon juice and herbs. It takes about 40 minutes.

Almost any recipe that calls for fresh beets will work just as well with canned beets if you don’t feel like cooking from scratch. Watch out for the sodium content, and choose those that have been packed in water. They will be somewhat less crisp than fresh ones but just as tasty.

One word of caution: Beets can turn your urine red or show up as red spots in your feces for a couple of days. This can be alarming. However, it is merely the result of pigments in beets that some humans are unable to metabolize, so they pass through the system unchanged.

*

Dr. Sheldon Margen is professor of public health at UC Berkeley; Dale A. Ogar is managing editor of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. Send questions to Dale Ogar, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, or to daogar@uclink4.berkeley.edu. Eating Smart runs every Monday.