Beetroot (red beets): good for sex, high blood-pressure and freedom

Beetroot (red beet) is like sex -- it's usually good for you, but it does not survive bottling or canning in tins happily, people can be very odd about it, and it's been around in Europe since prehistoric times.

It was usually only eaten for its leaves, boiled or steamed and then tasting like spinach, up until the 1500's (leaf beet, leafbeet), when fatter-rooted varieties finally became common, spreading out from Germany into Russia, Poland and Scandinavia, and eating beetroot for its roots rather than leaves became the norm. Botanically, beetroot (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. vulgaris) is identical to Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla, whose leaves are still commonly eaten), being a sister subspecies.

Beetroot played a part in helping end slavery - when a variety of red beet was developed solely for its sugar content, and widely grown for sugar, it eventually caused a price crash in the value of sugar cane, which in turn started undercutting the slave trade, sugar cane having been one main reason for the initial Atlantic slave traffic and enslaving in West Africa. Sugar beet still accounts for around 40% of all sugar production today.

It has also been used as a herb to treat various ailments for centuries, including against tumours; while of course it is not terribly effective, it does contain the compound allantoine (as well as tons of Vitamin C), which does have some anti-cancer properties. Beetroot certainly has its fans, like Stephen Nottingham who wrote an e-book devoted to it, and may win many more fans today, because of some newly discovered medical properties.

The newly discovered properties include that drinking beetroot juice has a significant effect in lowering blood pressure:

Be aware that drinking lots of beetroot juice can cause a temporary stomach upset, so cut the beetroot juice with some apple juice and some carrot juice to taste. Also be aware that beetroot can colour urine, so you may piss red afterwards, but this is absolutely harmless and temporary.

While beetroot contains betaine which is very good for heart and liver problems, the main effect seems to be through dietary nitrates, the precursors of nitric oxide in the body, inducing vasodilation or in other words opening up the blood vessels and thereby increasing blood flow -- and that can only help sex too. So red beets for heart and bed! There is also a recipe for a beetroot glaze you can use on cakes and biscuits, and lots of other recipes too.