25 October: Beetroot

Another celebration from the French Revolutionary Calendar today. 25 October was Beetroot Day. Here are some things you might not know about beetroot.

1. The scientific name for a beetroot plant is Beta vulgaris.
2. Raw beetroot is 88% water, 10% carbohydrates, 2% protein, and less than 1% fat. It is a good source of folate and a moderate source of manganese. Beetroot has one of the highest sugar contents of any vegetable, but the sugar from beetroot is released into the body slowly, so you don't get a sugar rush from eating it. It also contains tryptophan, which is also found in Chocolate – so it's a feel-good food.
3. The ancient Romans believed beetroot was an aphrodisiac. The Lupanare, the official brothel of Pompeii, had beetroots painted onto its walls. Today, we know that beetroot contains high amounts of boron, which is directly related to the production of human sex hormones, so perhaps the Romans were right! The ancient Greeks, meanwhile, offered beetroot to the god Apollo on Silver platters at his temple at Delphi.
4. The stuff that gives beetroot its colour is a chemical called betacyanin. Betacyanin is also an antioxidant, which has the benefit of speeding up detoxification in the liver – which means it can also be a Hangover cure. The 17th century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper prescribed beetroot juice for headaches and “afflictions of the brain”.
5. A couple more uses for beetroot juice – you can dye your hair with it, as the Victorians used to do, or you can use it like litmus paper to determine whether a substance is acid or alkaline. When added to an acidic solution, it turns Pink, but when it is added to an alkali, it turns Yellow.
6. While we most often eat the root, the leaves can be eaten too, either as a salad vegetable or cooked. Cooked spinach leaves taste like Spinach.
7. Beetroot can also be used to make Wine, which tastes rather like port.
8. Eating a lot of beetroot can result in a condition called beeturia, where a person's urine can turn slightly Red. This happens because the red colour compound is not completely broken down by the body.
9. The heaviest beetroot ever was grown by Ian Neale of Somerset in 2001 and weighed 23.4 kg (51 lb 9.4 oz). The longest was grown by Joe Atherton of Malvern and measured 7.956 m (26 ft 1.22 in). Joe also holds records for other long vegetables such as the longest Carrot.
10. Beetroot has been eaten in space. In 1975, during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, cosmonauts from the USSR's Soyuz 19 served borscht (beetroot soup) to the Apollo 18 astronauts when they arrived on board.

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