" I hear beetroot's the new super food and helps to clean the blood.  Can you tell me more?"

Beetroot has been used for thousands of years to treat ailments, noteably, fevers, constipation, wounds and skin ailments and also illness relating to digestion and blood.  It hasn't really popped up as the latest superfood, it has always floated around as one.  I remember at school some 15 years ago, someone telling me that beetroot was great for the blood.

The Romans have been using it for centuries as an aphrodisiac,

Beetroot is wonderful for the liver and the kidneys - our two major blood filtering systems.  Betaine is the phytochemical in Beetroot.  A 2004 paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition discusses Betaine as being an "important nutrient for the prevention of chronic disease" and has been shown to "protect internal organs".  Let's face it, the blood that goes through your liver delivers nutrition to your entire body - so if you're supporting the organs, then you'll have good nutritious blood, and what better way to support the organs, than with great food like Beetroot!

A research paper in the journal Hypertension has shown beetroot juice to lower blood pressure quite rapidly.  Combine that with a bit of exercise, a balanced healthy diet and you can certainly look at throwing away your synthetic blood pressure medication.  Beetroot also lowers cholesterol.

Research on sports performance has shown that beetroot juice also enhances stamina.  In the 16^th Century doctors used it to treat anaemia and fatigue.

Amongst other things beetroot (or more specifically betaine) can reduce cancer cells multiplying, helps the hormonal system deal with depression, and assists in producing serotonin and dopamine.

The fact that clinical research supports the use of beetroot for preventing chronic disease excites me.  Many people are reluctant to look at ‘superfoods' in place of, or in additional to their conventional medicines, and see such treatment as airy fairy natural health stuff.   But beetroot, being supported by medical research adds fuel to the fire of its legitimacy.

One beetroot only has around 40-50 calories (depending on the size) and is a great source of Folate, all electrolytes and Vitamin C and a good source of Iron and Zinc.  1 beetroot also provides 200ml of water and 4g of fibre, which makes it great for digestive health along with its other properties.  The 13g of carbohydrate in Beetroot is medium GI with a low GL, so it's a great carbohydrate addition to a weight loss diet.

Beetroot can be juiced with other fruits (I quite like carrot, beetroot, ginger and grapefruit), it can be powdered and added to smoothies or other dishes.  I've been adding the powder to my ground rice porridge in the morning!  And of course there's tinned beetroot, beetroot dips and relishes and lovely roasted beetroot.  However you like to have it - eat lots of it, it's so good for you!

For some great beetroot recipes, check out this website: http://www.lovebeetroot.co.uk/recipes/

Stacey
2 December 10

My PT's recommended almonds as a great snack but I'm allergic to nuts.  Is there anything else I can have that's just as filling?

Absolutely!  Firstly though, are you allergic to all nuts?  Things like almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, pecans (to name a few) are tree nuts, whereas peanuts are actually legumes.  Some people are allergic to some tree nuts...but not all.

Let's assume that you are allergic to all nuts.  Nuts contain carbohydrate, proteins, fats and fibre and its mostly the last 2 things that satiate us (protein does also, but we're looking at fats and fibre here).  So when we're looking for an alternative for something that will keep us "full" but with little bulk, we're aiming for something as energy packed as a nut.

Are you allergic to seeds?  Seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, chia, flax and sesame can all be eaten on their own or mixed in with a little yoghurt if you wish.  Depending on the variety 2 tablespoons of seeds will give you approximately 10g of fat, 1g of fibre and 3g of protein and be around 100cals.  The great thing about seeds is all the other vitamins, minerals and secondary compounds they contain.  For example, pumpkin seeds are great for killing parasites and chia seeds are reportedly good for stamina.  Seeds are a good source of zinc which is awesome for our immune systems.  I would aim for seeds as a second option to nuts.

Here are some other ideas if seeds aren't your thing:

•·         ¼ avocado on 1 slice of toasted vogels bread (or rice/chia bread for a yummy gluten free toast) will provide around 10g carb, 3.5g fibre, 5g protein and 11g of good fats.  It's small, but will digest easily and keep you full.  It's approx 185-200cals.

•·         Similarly you could have a slice of toasted bread with a tablespoon of hummus with 4.5g of fat and 4.5g of protein and 2.5g of fibre.  This snack only packs a 133cal hit.

•·         A half serve of protein powder mixed with water and 2tsp of flaxseed oil is a good wee snack.  Protein powders are usually 30g of protein per serve.  So this snack would be 15g of protein, 10g of fat and to add some fibre we can add a tsp of slippery elm powder to add 1g of fibre.  This is approximately 150cals.

•·         Weetbix with marmite.  Remember as a kid we'd smear butter and marmite over a weetbix.  You can still do this!  But instead replace the butter with a tablespoon of avocado.  This snack is only 100cals with 3.4g of fibre, 2.7g protein, 5g of fat and 10g of carbs.

•·         Try mixing 4tablespoons of low fat cottage cheese with 1 tsp of pesto and have this on a Ryvita Cracker.  This snack is approximately 100-120cals, has 11g of protein, 3-5g of fat (depending on the type of pesto), 7g of carbs, and 1g of fibre.

In a nutshell (so to speak) shoot for foods high in fibre and essential fatty acids that take the digestive system a while to work on, while not overloading it.