FEW ROOTS BEAT THE BEET
By Jenny Hammer
Stroll through a farmers’ market or local grocery this
month and the rich colors of autumn will catch your
eye--among them the deep reds, maroons, and golds of
beetroots and the magenta and sea-green of their leaves.
Beets are in season and can add earthy sweetness and
culinary versatility to your meals. But while they are
packed with flavor, their most important attribute is the
nutritional support of your good health.
A member of the Chenopodiaceae family, the
common garden beet (genus beta vulgaris) is related
to amaranth, quinoa, spinach, and lambsquarters--
nutritional powerhouses, all. Beets have a long history
of being used as food and as medicine. Ancient Greeks
and Romans used the leaves as a potherb. Apicius, a
collection of Roman recipes from the 1st century A.D.,
mentioned beetroot in broths and salads. Hippocrates
supposedly used the leaves of the beetroot to dress
wounds, and others ate the roots to combat sluggish
intestines, cure fevers, or as an aphrodisiac.
It wasn’t until the 16th century, however, that
Europeans started consuming the root as a vegetable.
Over time, farmers have selected the plant for specific
traits, giving us the four major beet cultivars of today:
the garden beet, the sugar beet, Swiss chard, and
mangels (or the mangelwurzel, used as livestock fodder
since the 1700s).
While the garden beet and Swiss chard are what
we are most familiar with, sugar beets have been and
continue to be an important crop even though you
won’t find them in any local markets. Because they can
contain up to 22% sucrose, sugar beets supply fifty-five
percent of the sugar produced in the United States and
20-25% of the sugar produced worldwide. Cane sugar
(think C&H of Crockett) makes up the remainder.
Unlike sugar beets, however, red and golden garden
beetroots haven’t been genetically modified. Ninety-five
percent of the U.S. sugar beet crop has been modified,
to make it resistant to glyphosate, a.k.a. “RoundUp.”
This may surprise you.