Monday, 9 November 2015

Food Profile: Beetroot + How to make beetroot juice

Hello fam! hope y'all had a great weekend. Today, we'd be taking a look at this not too popular vegetable found here in Nigeria. Beetroot is a vegetable with a delicious but distinctive flavor filled with lots of nutritional benefits. Typically, it has a rich purple color although it can also be white and golden.

It can be eaten raw, pickled, roasted whole and eaten, made into a soup or blended into a drink as a smoothie or juice just like most people into some kind of sports do. It can also be grated and added raw to coleslaw or your favorite salad. This power plant is low in fat, full of vitamins & minerals and also powerful antioxidants. It’s commercial value increased greatly when it was discovered that beets could be converted into sugar. Belonging to the same family as spinach, both the leaves and root can be eaten. The leaves have a bitter taste while the root is sweet. 

Beets contain a variety of unique health-boosting nutrients that may improve your health in so many ways such as; 

1) Drinking beetroot juice helps in lowering blood pressure within hours. This is due to the fact that beets contain Nitrates. Once it gets into the body, it gets converted into nitric. Nitric oxide, in turn, helps to dilate and relax your blood vessels, improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure.

2) Beetroot helps to boost your stamina during exercise and athletic performance. The juice has been shown to improve muscle oxygenation during exercise, suggesting that increased dietary nitrate intake has the potential to enhance exercise tolerance during long-term endurance exercise. This is a very useful pre-workout drink which may prove valuable therefore if you need a boost to make it through your next workout, beet juice is definitely the answer.

3) Beets are rich in valuable nutrients and minerals. They contain immune-boosting vitamin C, B vitamin folate, which helps reduce the risk of birth defects, fiber & essential minerals like potassium which is essential for healthy nerve and muscle function and manganese which is good for your bones, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. It also contains contains thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, pantothenic acid, choline, betaine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and selenium.

4) Beets aid in detoxification by helping to purify the blood and liver.

5) Beetroot is rich in fiber and therefore helps to prevent constipation and promote regularity for a healthy digestive tract.

6) Beet juice helps in reducing chronic inflammation. This is because it contains choline which is a very important and versatile nutrient in beetroot that helps with sleep, muscle movement, learning and memory.

According to research, One cup of raw beets contains 58 calories, 13 grams of carbohydrate (including 9 grams of sugar and 4 grams of fiber) and 2 grams of protein. It provides 1% of daily vitamin A needs, 2% of calcium, 11% of vitamin C and 6% of iron.

How to make beetroot juice:::

To make your own beetroot juice, simply peel the beetroot and blend with a combination of fresh fruits such as orange and pineapple or apples, lemon and ginger. Once you're done blending, strain.



  1. Anonymous12:57 pm

    where can i find this fruit?

  2. I have never seen or heard about this fruit. Thanks Dobby but where can we find it. Location pls.

  3. They sell beetroot seeds at Shoprite. Hope this information helps.

  4. You can get it in the market from the people that sell salad vegetables.

  5. Hmmmm...I'm hoping it tastes good cos I'm going to try it out!

  6. Wow, this much be organic beetroot, because the ones I've seen so far doesn't look like this one .

  7. please can you introduce any caterer that can prepare some of these delicacy and deliver to my office at a fee.

    1. Can you send me your e-mail addy Temitope via

  8. I love your blog. Keep up the good work. God bless.

  9. Beetroot juice is my favorite! Beets are nourishing and healthful food not just because they are rich in antioxidant pigments but also it's one of the best foods to heal and nourish the tissues.

  10. Damilola8:43 pm

    I bought some today and the raw ones tasted salty. Is that right? And how will it affect the outcome of my smoothie?

    1. Hi Damilola, the raw beetroot usually tastes sweet and not salty.

