Healthy Raw Beet Salad (2024)

FAQs

Is it healthy to eat beets raw? ›

Beets are not only nutritious but also incredibly delicious and easy to incorporate into your diet. You can juice, roast, steam, or pickle them. For a convenient option, you can purchase them precooked and canned. You can even enjoy them raw, either sliced thinly or grated.

Roast Them

Roasting is an overall healthy cooking method with minimal vitamin loss, particularly vitamin C. Roasted beets are rich and sweet with slight mineral flavors. Remember to avoid long cooking times and high temperatures, as these can reduce nutrients. Try using smaller bulbs if you want to prepare them faster.

The oxalates found in beets can increase your uric acid level, meaning that too many beets can lead to gout. To avoid this, stick to no more than a single half-cup serving of beets per day.

Are beet greens healthier raw or cooked? In most cases, the healthy nutrients of beet greens are consumed, as long as they aren't overcooked. "Like most vegetables, some nutrients may get lost in the cooking process, but cooked beet greens can still provide a great source of nutrients," Mathis says.

You see, beetroot is rich in glutathiones – a compound found in the phytonutrients betalains – which shines in detoxifying the liver. As far as reaping the liver-loving benefits go, the best way to get your beetroot fix is in a raw purple juice.

As these vegetables are low in fat and high in dietary fiber, both soluble and insoluble. These two forms prevent fat loss by promoting lowering cholesterol levels and proper bowel function. Also, beetroot is high in magnesium which promotes healthy nerves and helps with weight loss.

With only a few exceptions, canned beetroots have about the same nutritional value as fresh beetroots. Fresh beetroots have double the phosphorus, potassium and folate, but 1 cup of sliced, canned beetroots has 14 percent of the recommended daily intake of folate and 4 percent of phosphorus and potassium.

Most people do peel beets, because the skin is a bit unattractive and can be dirty even after a good scrub. But beet skins are rich in nutrients and perfectly fine to eat too.

If you'll be eating beets raw, you'll want to peel off the hard outer skin with a vegetable peeler. Fresh, raw beets can be finely grated into salads for color or used as a garnish for soup. But beets are usually roasted, boiled or steamed and cut into thin slices, cubes or chunks as in this Winter Beet Salad recipe.

Luckily, beets have a number of anti-inflammatory benefits, thanks to their high content of betalains. You can maximize getting all this goodness by consuming beets in juice form. Trust us, it's tastier than you think. Studies have shown that beet juice reduces inflammation across your whole body.

Can too much beets be bad for you? ›

As with any food, the overconsumption of beets can lead to some health problems. Risks of overconsumption include: Increased risk of kidney stones: Since beets are high in the compound oxalate, eating too many can contribute to kidney stone formation. Beeturia: With beeturia, urine may turn pink or red.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), drinking a moderate amount of beet juice is probably safe for most people. Many studies that are done on beets also have participants eating them—or drinking the juice—every day or most days.

Steaming beets is a healthful cooking method because they retain most of their vitamins and minerals—they're not boiled out in water—and stay incredibly vibrant. Plus, steaming small beets or beet quarters is quick and easy for weeknights.

Packed with nutrition, beets have antioxidants like betalains that fight cell damage and inflammation, potentially offering protection against cancer and heart disease. Health benefits of beets include more stamina during exercise, heart disease and stroke prevention, and lower blood pressure.

Beet greens have a similar colorful look as swiss chard and can be consumed in much of the same way. They also are very high in iron with a higher iron count than spinach as well as vitamin K, B6, magnesium and potassium. They are also a great source of fiber.

It's true that beets do have more sugars than many other vegetables—about 8 grams in a serving of two small beets. But that's hardly the same as getting 8 grams of sugars from a cookie. "Beets are high in fiber, which traps the sugar and slows its absorption into the bloodstream," Linsenmeyer says.

It helps in the detoxification process because of the betaine it contains, which helps prevent and/or reduce fatty deposits in the liver. On the same note, beetroot helps in whole body detoxification. It's a great purifier and does so by pulling toxins into the colon where they can then be evacuated.

They can be roasted, boiled or steamed, and even eaten raw — thinly sliced or shredded beets add an interesting crunch to salads. Sometimes beets are peeled before cooking. They may also be scrubbed and cooked until tender with their skins on; the skins slip off fairly easily after cooling.