Beetroot/Swiss chard
Beetroot can be found in high class supermarket like Citysuper, Taste and Great in Hong Kong. It is a world known charming food in
the western cuisine which cook as soup, as a layer of hamburger etc.
During December of 2011, I sowed those beetroot seeds. Those "seeds" are actually dried fruit pod of beetroot plants, which contain few seeds within, thus few seedlings formed from one fruit pod, later I brought them to the farm to strengthen the seedling after two week of germination. Those seedlings are transferred to the ground within February. I fertilized those seedlings every week, until the root reach the suitable size for harvest. The brand of seeds I used are Mr. Fothergills Detroit 2, which bought from Green Earth Society organic shop in Sai Kung (famous place in Hong Kong for seafood), the package contains of 275 seeds, and I shared the remain to the land owner
Due to the size are limited in my farmland, I could only plant 18 seedlings. During the seedling stage, the root not yet enlarged, until the end of March. The root increased its size and took the size of a tennis ball around april. In spite of this, the root was very sweet and I asked my domestic helper to cook a lot of cuisine like soup and salad, I still remember the sweet taste of that vegetable.
Mr. Wong said the size of my beetroot was in normal range, if the root took the size of a baby head, which means growth hormones is added during the growing stage of this vegetable, it will be harmful for consuming.
Beetroot also have a lots of variety like golden beetroot, sugar beet, Chioggia (Candy strip beetroot), Fodder beetroot etc. they have different size and color.
There is other variant of beet called Swiss chard, which only focus on consuming the leaf. The taste is similar to Spinach, so the cooking method is similar. Swiss chard has many color variant like green, gold, red etc. which bring attractive image to salad. Also, it has a name called "Female Pig Vegetable" in Cantonese, due to the plant mainly used as food to the pig in there. In my farm, Mr. Wong grew Swiss chard few years ago, but the result doesn't satisfactory, it carried a lots of pest to the farm and harm other crops like spinach, beetroot etc. So, Mr. Wong doesn't grow it again.
For the Food chemistry of beetroot, metal ions like Iron, phytochemicals like Betalains etc can be found. It has multiple effect on our body health.
Betalains are the pigment which contribute to the red color of beetroot. It is classified into two groups—red betacyanin and yellow betaxanthin. (1) These pigments have strong anticancer effects. Due to their nontoxic phytochemical properties, it is also used with potent anticancer drugs such as doxorubicin. Also, it has the potential minimize the side effect by synergistically and mitigate treatment-related drug toxicity. (1) These proved by the use animal model, it works effective as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents. (1)
These pigment contribute as antioxidant by high free radical-scavenging activity, also it is the modulator of oxidative stress. Respiration process produced superoxide anion radical, hydroxyl radical, and hydrogen peroxide in the cellular level, which will cause damage to the cell, than affect the tissue and lead to organ problems eventually lead to disease such as arthrosclerosis. (2) Betalains can help removal of the free radical by neutralize free radicals by accepting or donating electron to the substrate, which enable the protection of the body. (1)
Betalains and other compounds in beetroot also show anti-diabetic properties. Betalains increase the number of beta-cells and secretary granules in islet of Langerhans, which proved by the result in STZ-induced mammals (STZ means streptozotocin-induced clastogenesis, streptozotocin is an toxic chemical which kill insulin secreting beta-cell in pancreas). (1) It doesn’t affect the body weight and blood sugar of those normal animals.(1) Other antioxidant such as polyphenols, flavonoids like Epicatechin also take part in the prevention of diabetes by the regeneration of pancreatic cells within the body, which prove by the experiment in rat - 30 mg/kg of epicatechin for 4–5 days which cause the sugar level down to normal, regeneration of beta cells which similar to normal animal.(3) Red Beet Fibers also reduce the risk of diabetes by the modify the microenvironment of the gut.(3) This dietary fibre decreases the uptake of nutrients, which cause the body absorbs lesser glucose to the blood stream.(3)
Beetroot contains a lots of iron ion, which is benefit in forming new hemoglobin within the red blood cell and other metabolism in the body. Haemoglobin is a molecule that assembled from four globular protein subunits, those chain arranges into a set of alpha-helix structural segments and formed globin fold arrangement with Iron ion at the centre of the molecule.(4) Supplement of iron ions are very useful for those women after menstruation period as it is effective to resupply their red blood cell.(4) Those subunits are composed peptide chain tightly associated with a non-protein prosthetic heme group.(4) Iron also help catalysis of protein like DNA generation, it also help electron transport chain and oxygen transport to maintain vital function for human. (4)
Beetroot also contains anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, anti-acetylcholinesterase, antimutagenic, and lipid-lowering benefits. Anti-inflammatory effect allow the reduce of inflammation in the body, which delay the onset of blood vessel problem such as artherscerlosis. (5) The antimicrobial effect help remove harmful pathogens in the body, which decrease the need of antibiotic and delay the resistance of drugs.(6) Anti-acetylcholinesterase and lipid-lowering effect also help prevent the lipid acuminate in the blood vessel thus prevent blood clot formation within artery.(5) These effects are benefit for the protection from cardiovascular disease, peripheral capillary fragility, also stroke.(7)
Furthermore, clinical experiment shows that swimmers have stronger vital capacity after drinking beetroot juice constantly.(8) In the experiment, they found fourteen moderately trained male swimmers who always participate in regional and national competitions as the test subject. They measured the level of fitness of those athlete by the measure of maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) during standard incremental exercise test with a cycle-ergometer. (8) Those athletes mean ± standard deviation (SD) of age, mass, and height were 34.7 ± 7.5 years, 69.4 ± 6.1 kg, and 173.6 ± 4.3 cm. (8) For other information, those atheletes are trained an average of 6.5 ± 0.8 h per week. They trained 3 to 4 times/week, with 3.000–5.000 m distance covered. (8)
For the experiment, they used Incremental control swimming (CSW) test, which is an randomized control trial. The test started in time 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. within a 25-metre indoor swimming pool.(8) Those participant are needed to perform front crawl with free stroke frequency.(8) They wore a waist belt to an elastic rope with a digital dynamometer (PCE, FM1000, Ballingen, Germany). (8) It also had a computer interface that linked to the starting block of the swimming pool. (8) They started the incremental swimming test again after beetroot juice supplementation (BJS) test after a week of beetroot juice supplementation to those athletes. (8) The beet juice they used are NO3 Ion rich beetroot juice (Reed Beet Juice, Aureli, Ortucchio, Italy). (8)
For the result, it shows that threshold are increased after beetroot juice supplementation when compare to those who take Incremental control swimming without taking beetroot juice. The result indicated by a 4%–5% reduction in oxygen uptake, swimmers drink beetroot juice has better performance than the control group.(8) Although the actual mechanism of actions is still not clear, few hypotheses are introduced.(8) For example, there are NO-mediated enhancements in mitochondrial efficiency and/or enhanced muscle blood flow, NO-mediated effect on muscle contractile function etc. (8)
Nitrate have capacity to dilate vessels in ischemic cardiovascular disease, they can improve the exercise by improving the efficiency. (9) The theory have proposed that increased levels of nitric oxide following supplementation may enhance the reduction of the ATP cost of force production, which reduce the energy uptake in sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pumping or myofibrillar actin-myosin interaction. (9)
1. Sekiguchi H, Ozeki Y, Sasaki N. Biosynthesis and Regulation of Betalains in Red Beet. In: Neelwarne B, editor. Red Beet Biotechnology: Food and Pharmaceutical Applications. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2012. p. 45-54.
During December of 2011, I sowed those beetroot seeds. Those "seeds" are actually dried fruit pod of beetroot plants, which contain few seeds within, thus few seedlings formed from one fruit pod, later I brought them to the farm to strengthen the seedling after two week of germination. Those seedlings are transferred to the ground within February. I fertilized those seedlings every week, until the root reach the suitable size for harvest. The brand of seeds I used are Mr. Fothergills Detroit 2, which bought from Green Earth Society organic shop in Sai Kung (famous place in Hong Kong for seafood), the package contains of 275 seeds, and I shared the remain to the land owner
Due to the size are limited in my farmland, I could only plant 18 seedlings. During the seedling stage, the root not yet enlarged, until the end of March. The root increased its size and took the size of a tennis ball around april. In spite of this, the root was very sweet and I asked my domestic helper to cook a lot of cuisine like soup and salad, I still remember the sweet taste of that vegetable.
Mr. Wong said the size of my beetroot was in normal range, if the root took the size of a baby head, which means growth hormones is added during the growing stage of this vegetable, it will be harmful for consuming.
Beetroot also have a lots of variety like golden beetroot, sugar beet, Chioggia (Candy strip beetroot), Fodder beetroot etc. they have different size and color.
There is other variant of beet called Swiss chard, which only focus on consuming the leaf. The taste is similar to Spinach, so the cooking method is similar. Swiss chard has many color variant like green, gold, red etc. which bring attractive image to salad. Also, it has a name called "Female Pig Vegetable" in Cantonese, due to the plant mainly used as food to the pig in there. In my farm, Mr. Wong grew Swiss chard few years ago, but the result doesn't satisfactory, it carried a lots of pest to the farm and harm other crops like spinach, beetroot etc. So, Mr. Wong doesn't grow it again.
For the Food chemistry of beetroot, metal ions like Iron, phytochemicals like Betalains etc can be found. It has multiple effect on our body health.
Betalains are the pigment which contribute to the red color of beetroot. It is classified into two groups—red betacyanin and yellow betaxanthin. (1) These pigments have strong anticancer effects. Due to their nontoxic phytochemical properties, it is also used with potent anticancer drugs such as doxorubicin. Also, it has the potential minimize the side effect by synergistically and mitigate treatment-related drug toxicity. (1) These proved by the use animal model, it works effective as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents. (1)
These pigment contribute as antioxidant by high free radical-scavenging activity, also it is the modulator of oxidative stress. Respiration process produced superoxide anion radical, hydroxyl radical, and hydrogen peroxide in the cellular level, which will cause damage to the cell, than affect the tissue and lead to organ problems eventually lead to disease such as arthrosclerosis. (2) Betalains can help removal of the free radical by neutralize free radicals by accepting or donating electron to the substrate, which enable the protection of the body. (1)
Betalains and other compounds in beetroot also show anti-diabetic properties. Betalains increase the number of beta-cells and secretary granules in islet of Langerhans, which proved by the result in STZ-induced mammals (STZ means streptozotocin-induced clastogenesis, streptozotocin is an toxic chemical which kill insulin secreting beta-cell in pancreas). (1) It doesn’t affect the body weight and blood sugar of those normal animals.(1) Other antioxidant such as polyphenols, flavonoids like Epicatechin also take part in the prevention of diabetes by the regeneration of pancreatic cells within the body, which prove by the experiment in rat - 30 mg/kg of epicatechin for 4–5 days which cause the sugar level down to normal, regeneration of beta cells which similar to normal animal.(3) Red Beet Fibers also reduce the risk of diabetes by the modify the microenvironment of the gut.(3) This dietary fibre decreases the uptake of nutrients, which cause the body absorbs lesser glucose to the blood stream.(3)
Beetroot contains a lots of iron ion, which is benefit in forming new hemoglobin within the red blood cell and other metabolism in the body. Haemoglobin is a molecule that assembled from four globular protein subunits, those chain arranges into a set of alpha-helix structural segments and formed globin fold arrangement with Iron ion at the centre of the molecule.(4) Supplement of iron ions are very useful for those women after menstruation period as it is effective to resupply their red blood cell.(4) Those subunits are composed peptide chain tightly associated with a non-protein prosthetic heme group.(4) Iron also help catalysis of protein like DNA generation, it also help electron transport chain and oxygen transport to maintain vital function for human. (4)
Beetroot also contains anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, anti-acetylcholinesterase, antimutagenic, and lipid-lowering benefits. Anti-inflammatory effect allow the reduce of inflammation in the body, which delay the onset of blood vessel problem such as artherscerlosis. (5) The antimicrobial effect help remove harmful pathogens in the body, which decrease the need of antibiotic and delay the resistance of drugs.(6) Anti-acetylcholinesterase and lipid-lowering effect also help prevent the lipid acuminate in the blood vessel thus prevent blood clot formation within artery.(5) These effects are benefit for the protection from cardiovascular disease, peripheral capillary fragility, also stroke.(7)
Furthermore, clinical experiment shows that swimmers have stronger vital capacity after drinking beetroot juice constantly.(8) In the experiment, they found fourteen moderately trained male swimmers who always participate in regional and national competitions as the test subject. They measured the level of fitness of those athlete by the measure of maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) during standard incremental exercise test with a cycle-ergometer. (8) Those athletes mean ± standard deviation (SD) of age, mass, and height were 34.7 ± 7.5 years, 69.4 ± 6.1 kg, and 173.6 ± 4.3 cm. (8) For other information, those atheletes are trained an average of 6.5 ± 0.8 h per week. They trained 3 to 4 times/week, with 3.000–5.000 m distance covered. (8)
For the experiment, they used Incremental control swimming (CSW) test, which is an randomized control trial. The test started in time 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. within a 25-metre indoor swimming pool.(8) Those participant are needed to perform front crawl with free stroke frequency.(8) They wore a waist belt to an elastic rope with a digital dynamometer (PCE, FM1000, Ballingen, Germany). (8) It also had a computer interface that linked to the starting block of the swimming pool. (8) They started the incremental swimming test again after beetroot juice supplementation (BJS) test after a week of beetroot juice supplementation to those athletes. (8) The beet juice they used are NO3 Ion rich beetroot juice (Reed Beet Juice, Aureli, Ortucchio, Italy). (8)
For the result, it shows that threshold are increased after beetroot juice supplementation when compare to those who take Incremental control swimming without taking beetroot juice. The result indicated by a 4%–5% reduction in oxygen uptake, swimmers drink beetroot juice has better performance than the control group.(8) Although the actual mechanism of actions is still not clear, few hypotheses are introduced.(8) For example, there are NO-mediated enhancements in mitochondrial efficiency and/or enhanced muscle blood flow, NO-mediated effect on muscle contractile function etc. (8)
Nitrate have capacity to dilate vessels in ischemic cardiovascular disease, they can improve the exercise by improving the efficiency. (9) The theory have proposed that increased levels of nitric oxide following supplementation may enhance the reduction of the ATP cost of force production, which reduce the energy uptake in sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pumping or myofibrillar actin-myosin interaction. (9)
1. Sekiguchi H, Ozeki Y, Sasaki N. Biosynthesis and Regulation of Betalains in Red Beet. In: Neelwarne B, editor. Red Beet Biotechnology: Food and Pharmaceutical Applications. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2012. p. 45-54.
2. Moo-Huchin VM, Moo-Huchin MI, Estrada-León RJ, Cuevas-Glory L,
Estrada-Mota IA, Ortiz-Vázquez E, et al. Antioxidant compounds, antioxidant
activity and phenolic content in peel from three tropical fruits from Yucatan,
Mexico. Food Chemistry. 2015;166(Supplement C):17-22.
3. Gilchrist M, Winyard PG, Fulford J, Anning C, Shore AC, Benjamin
N. Dietary nitrate supplementation improves reaction time in type 2 diabetes:
Development and application of a novel nitrate-depleted beetroot juice placebo.
Nitric Oxide. 2014;40(Supplement C):67-74.
4. Clifford T, Howatson G, West DJ, Stevenson EJ. The Potential Benefits
of Red Beetroot Supplementation in Health and Disease. Nutrients.
2015;7(4):2801-22.
5. Joshipura KJ, Ascherio A, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB,
Speizer FE, et al. Fruit and vegetable intake in relation to risk of ischemic
stroke. J Am Med Assoc. 1999;282.
6. Vulic JJ, Cebovic TN, Canadanovic VM, Cetkovic GS, Djilas SM,
Canadanovic-Brunet JM, et al. Antiradical, antimicrobial and cytotoxic
activities of commercial beetroot pomace. Food & function.
2013;4(5):713-21.
7. Staessen JA, Wang JG, Thijs L. Cardiovascular protection and
blood pressure reduction: a meta-analysis. Lancet. 2001;358.
8. Pinna M, Roberto S, Milia R, Marongiu E, Olla S, Loi A, et al.
Effect of beetroot juice supplementation on aerobic response during swimming.
Nutrients. 2014;6(2):605-15.
9. L'Hirondel JL. Nitrate and man. Toxic, harmless or beneficial.
Wallingford, United Kingdom: CABI Publishing; 2001.
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Figure 1: This is
Mr. Fothergills Detroit beetroot seeds, this brand is common in UK, Canada and
Australia, I sowed those beetroot seeds and got satisfactory germination rate.
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Figure 4: Cleaning beetroot in home
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