Red beets: benefits, harms and cultivation features

Those who are engaged in gardening know how many health benefits they grow on their site. vegetables... One of these long-known plants in folk medicine is red beet.

Content

• The richness of the biochemical composition of red beets
• Useful properties of a vegetable
• Correct use of beets for weight loss
• Harm and contraindications
• Breeding features
• Correct care
• Diseases and pests

The richness of the biochemical composition of red beets

In taste and smell, beets differ from their counterparts in the garden. This is because it is unique in terms of its biochemical composition. The combination of copper with phosphorus and folic acid in this root vegetable helps the spinal cord to accelerate red blood cell production. Such a component of a vegetable, as an element of silicon, helps to strengthen blood vessels, the elasticity of their walls. And with organic acid betaine, it protects our liver from the destructive effects of toxins that enter the human body both with food and with alcohol.

The homeland of this vegetable is the Atlantic. This is probably why it contains more iodine than other plants from the garden. In case of malfunctions, the thyroid gland just needs this element.

An active substance such as betanin is also found in beets. The body needs it to control the formation and spread of cancer cells.

Fiber, which is rich in the root vegetable, improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, makes the body's metabolism active.

By sanitizing the intestinal mucosa, the vegetable kills putrefactive bacteria in it. Red beet rich in potassium, calcium, and a large amount of magnesium, sodium, phosphorus. You can not buy vitamin preparations at the pharmacy, but simply include this vegetable in your diet. And you will get the same result from its use as vitamins give, so necessary for our body.

Useful properties of a vegetable

The ancient Romans spoke about the benefits of beets, who used not only the root of the plant for food, but also the leaves.

The vegetable tops contain a large amount of vitamin K and other vitamins and minerals.

It is used in the treatment of wounds, bruises, tumors, applying gruel from leaves to a sore spot. They have the same healing effect as the leaves. plantain.

And the root crop itself, as a good healer, will help with such ailments:

• A person will avoid atherosclerosis and hypertension, since the amount of cholesterol will be normal, the vessels will expand and will not collapse prematurely.
• With deficiencies in the functioning of the liver, beets will help remove toxins from the body, protect this organ from obesity, affecting lipid metabolism.
• Angina and other colds can be cured with beet juice by taking it along with carrot juice. By adding radish juice here, we will ease the condition with pneumonia. And by instilling diluted beet juice into your nose twice a day, you can get rid of a cold.If this action is uncomfortable, then a cotton swab dipped in beet juice and tucked into the nose brings relief from chronic rhinitis.
• The juice of this vegetable helps with headaches and toothaches. A tampon moistened with juice is placed in the ear, and the pain goes away. A piece of vegetable will relieve pain when you put it on a tooth that is causing suffering.
• Gastritis pain will diminish, bloating will stop and constipation will go away when beets come to the rescue.
• In winter, eating red beets is good for improving mood and strengthening the immune system. It promotes active brain function.
• Anemia is also treated with this product, so it is good for children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. But the latter with caution, as it can lead to diarrhea in the child.

Correct use of beets for weight loss

Red beet is a low-calorie product, so nutritionists did not ignore it. By including boiled beetroot or its juice in the diet, you can lose extra pounds without killing yourself by starvation. This root vegetable is a good diuretic and perfectly cleanses the intestines from toxins.

Still, beet juice, which is used for weight loss, is best drunk in combination with other vegetable juices from carrots, pumpkin, cabbage.

A one-time diet on this vegetable is as follows: during the day, eat boiled beets without salt in the amount of two kilograms, you can add a little vegetable oil to the dish.

And some lose weight in a different way. Within a month, you need to eat right, without consuming products harmful to the body: sausage, fried and smoked dishes, white bread. The menu contains only vegetables, fruits, lean meat, fish. Then, for a half month every day, drink half a glass of freshly squeezed red beet juice or eat one small boiled beet.

Then again, proper nutrition, sports. After a month, you can drink juice for another week. Many recommend adding kefir to beet juice. Using this product, you can not only reduce weight, but also get a lot of nutrients that are so necessary for the successful functioning of the body.

Harm and contraindications

Beets do not bring much harm to people, but there are contraindications, but rather restrictions in its use:

• Frequent consumption of vegetables leads to poor absorption of calcium by the body. This is especially dangerous for those with fragile bones.
• When stones are found in the kidneys, it is impossible to drink beet juice, since it contains oxalic acid, which crystallizes the liquid in this organ.
• In chronic diarrhea, the vegetable is also contraindicated, since it already has a laxative effect.
• Diabetics also need to limit their use due to the fact that it is capable of slightly, but increasing blood sugar.
• For those who suffer from hypotension, it is also better to refrain from frequent intake of dishes from this root vegetable. And all due to the fact that it lowers the pressure in the arteries, and for hypertensive patients it is dangerous.

Breeding features

If interest in your health prompts you to cultivation of this vegetable, then - it is not difficult to do it at all. Red beet belongs to biennial plants: in the first summer it forms a root crop together with a rosette of leaves, and in the second - an shoot with a flower, from which, when it fades, it forms the seeds... They are used for planting next year.

Features of seed propagation:

• In early May, you can prepare beds for red beets by adding a little humus or compost to the soil, then sowing cooked vegetable seeds into it.
• If a piece of land is located in a damp place, then the bed is made high, because the plant does not tolerate excess moisture and rots.
• This vegetable loves to grow where it once grew cucumbers, onion, potatoes.
• It is necessary to plant seeds in warm and moist soil at an air temperature of four to five degrees Celsius, although beets are not afraid of small frosts.
• Planting depth is two to three centimeters.
• Planting too early will lead to the formation of flower stalks on the vegetable. Before planting, the seed is soaked for a day.

This root crop can also be grown in seedlings. In April, a month before planting the prepared seedlings into the ground, seeds are sown in a greenhouse or greenhouse. Dive the sprouts that appear are optional.

This planting method is used by those who want to harvest red beets in the early stages.

Due to the fact that the culture does not like shade, it is cultivated in open sunny places, this contributes to a brighter color of the root crop. You can plant a vegetable before winter.

Correct care

For a good, healthy harvest, beets need to be watered, thinned out and fed. Red beets love moisture, so water them abundantly, especially when the plant is young and during the thickening of the root crop. Before picking the vegetable, water it moderately.

A plant planted in rows must be thinned out.

This is done twice over the summer: first, when two leaves appear, and then - when four or five leaves appear. Torn root vegetables during the second stage of thinning can be used to prepare vitamin dishes.

Beet feeding:

• Beetroot responds positively to fertilizersespecially mineral... If you do not feed it, then the yield will be very small.
• Instead of mineral fertilizers, you can add wood ash, which is pre-mixed with a small amount of humus or compost.
• Top dressing is best done 2 times: after the first thinning of the beet plantings was carried out, and then, when the lush leaves of the vegetable cover the aisles.
• Nitrogen fertilizers, usually in the form of urea, are applied with caution because they help the root crop accumulate nitrates.
• During the second feeding, it is best to use forms of chlorine as potash fertilizers, because they can create obstacles to the accumulation of nitrates.

Many gardeners use beet tops for salads and soups. This is useful, but you cannot leave the plant without leaves, otherwise the root crop will be frail. A sign of a healthy fetus is lush tops. Therefore, it is necessary to pluck the leaves so as not to damage the leaf cap.

In the middle of autumn, beets are removed from the beds and stored in a cool place. To reduce the amount of nitrates in the root vegetable, it is either kept in water for one hour, or blanched in a little water before use. A healthy and tasty home-grown vegetable, what could be better.

Diseases and pests

Red beets are sick more often because they lack any elements for development:

• Decay of the fruit core occurs when there is a lack of chemical elements: boron, molybdenum, copper. To prevent this from happening, before planting, it is necessary to soak the vegetable seeds in a solution of these elements.
• Very often, the acidity of the soil in those places where red beets are planted is too high. If this is so, then the signs of acidic soil are expressed in the appearance of the plant: the appearance of yellow spots on the tops, weak shoots. These signs are typical when there is not enough potassium in the soil. To eliminate such an ailment, the root crop is watered with milk of lime. With high acidity, the leaves of the plant can also turn red. Sprinkling ash on the bed and watering leaves with salt water, gardeners cope with the problem.
• High humidity in a store or in a garden bed affects the beets with gray rot.

Of pests red beets can be attacked by beet fleas, flies, aphids. Fight them spraying soapy water. Pollination with wood ash and tobacco dust helps to destroy fleas that eat up the leaves until the death of the plant.

Gray weevil - the main pest of beets - can completely destroy its crops.It is lured with weeds dipped in a solution of Parisian greenery, or harvested by hand, ditching sections of the vegetable with grooves where the weevil falls. When the soil for planting red beets is properly prepared, the vegetable will be bright and juicy.

More information can be found in the video.