10 funky facts about beetroot

10 funky facts about beetroot

The beetroot, also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet or informally simply as beet, is one of the many cultivated varieties of beets (Beta vulgaris) OF Amaranthaceae FAMILY and arguably the most commonly encountered variety in North America, Central America and Britain.It's far sexier than it looks.We all know that it stains everything it touches, tastes good and is almost disturbingly healthy.What you might not know is that beetroot crops up in mythology and legend all over the place.You probably also don’t realise that beetroots are all about sex and love.Here then, in absolutely no particular order at all, are ten things that you may or may not  know about the red veg much beloved by Central and Eastern Europe.

1.Eating a lot of beetroot turns your pee pink/red, eating more makes your poo pink as well.


2.The Lupanare – official brothel of Pompeii (the brothel still stands, despite the best efforts of Vesuvius in 79AD), has its walls adorned with pictures of beetroots, amongst the frescoes of people busy at it.


3.You can use beetroot juice to measure acidity. When added to an acidic solution it turns pink, but when it is added to an alkali it turns yellow.


4.The Oracle at Delphi (Greek mythology, not software companies) claimed that beetroot was second only in mystical potency to horseradish, and that it was worth its weight in silver.


5.Betanins – the natural red coularants in beetroot, are used in the food industry to colour a number of other things as well, they help to make the red redder in tomato pastes, various sauces, jams, and even ice cream.


6.To “take favors in the beetroot fields” was a popular euphemism for visiting prostitutes in the early 20th century.


7.Beetroot contains betaine, which in other forms is used to help treat depression, and trytophan, the feel good chemical in chocolate.


8.In many cultures the belief persists that if a man and a woman eat from the same beetroot then they will fall in love.


9.If you boil beetroots in water, and then massage the water into your scalp each night, it works as an effective cure for dandruff.


10.In 1975, during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, cosmonauts from the USSR’s Soyuz 19 welcomed the Apollo 18 astronauts by preparing a banquet of borscht (beetroot soup) in zero gravity.