Green Smoothies Ingredient Profile: Beet Root Powder

I've decided to do a few smaller entries on smoothies and the ingredients I use to break all the info down into smaller, more manageable pieces (and because I'm lazy).  Today's ingredient is beet root powder.  Here's a not-so-great picture I took with my cell phone.

Beet root powder:  Has the highest sugar content for a vegetable and can also be used as a dye. One of the nutrients in beets/beet root powder is betaine.  Here's some info from the Mountain Rose Herbs profile:
"Betaine (the same as the nutritional supplement trimethylglycine, not the same as betaine hydrochloride)."
"Beet powder provides a wide range of nutrients, but its most significant phytochemical is betaine. This plant chemical helps the liver and kidneys recycle the amino acid methionine to maintain the body's stores of s-adenosyl-methionine, more commonly known as SAM-e."  If you've never heard of SAM-e, there's been a lot of recent press about it's ability to help with depression (again, I'm not a doctor, this is not meant to diagnose, cure, or treat you.  It's just info).  Here's a link to a NY Times article about a study done on SAM-e.


"Betaine also helps the liver process fat. This prevents the accumulation of fatty tissues in the liver (steatosis), especially in heavy drinkers, and it also prevents excessive triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in the blood."


The Mountain Rose Herbs site says one teaspoon of beet root powder is equal to the nutrition in one beet.  And it's easy to incorporate a teaspoon into a smoothie.  It tastes kind of how you'd expect it to taste, like a sweet/tart dried beet.  It doesn't really change the taste of your smoothie, if anything it helps cover the veggie taste a little and make it a prettier red/purple color instead of weird green/brown/purple.  The beet root powder I used in my smoothie is from my local co-op, but I will be ordering some from Mountain Rose Herbs in the future (buying in bulk is cheaper!).  I have ordered other products from their site before and had a very positive experience (great selection of sometimes hard to find natural products--essential oils, herbs, tinctures, cosmetic and cooking oils, spices, etc.-- and good quality).  Here's a link Mountain Rose Herbs "B" section of bulk herbs, check out beet root powder!


There will be more entries on ingredient profiles and a smoothie how-to coming soon.  Be sure to check out my previous entry introducing my veggie smoothies.

But I don't want to eat my vegetables!

Are you like me and don't really care for vegetables?  I mean, I'll eat a salad (covered in not so healthy ranch dressing).  Or douse a veggie in garlic, cheese, and oil and I'm there.  But plain old raw vegetables just aren't my favorite.  This makes me feel like a five-year-old who doesn't want to eat her vegetables.  The current recommendation by the USDA is 30% veggies and 20% fruits on your plate at every meal.  That means, at every meal, HALF your plate should be fruits and veggies.  Here's a wikipedia link to the new "My Plate," that's replaced the old food pyramid.  Half a plate?  Eeek.  Are they begging me to complain about why I hate brussels sprouts?  Don't get me wrong, I want to be healthy, maintain a reasonable weight, and have the energy to keep up with a busy life.  So like any mature adult, I trick myself into eating them.  How?

SMOOTHIES!

I'm not going to lie, sometimes when I make a smoothie, I do have to chew a little tiny bit.  But you get used to it.  So what goes into these wonder drinks?  I don't really follow a recipe, just what I've got available in the fruit bowl, fridge, and freezer (frozen organic berries are the KEY to covering up that icky vegetable taste!).  For example, in the smoothie BB (before blending) pictured above there are:

Bananas
Manoges
White beans (I like Eden organic because they're BPA free.  YAY!  Or you can soak and cook your own, which is definitely cheaper, but more time consuming.)
Raw walnuts
Spinach
Kale
Blueberries (frozen)
Raspberries (frozen)
And a cup of filtered water.

All the fruits, veggies, and proteins listed are organic.  I know organic can be expensive, so check out the Environmental Working Group's list of the Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen to know which fruits and veggies you should try to buy organic.  Here's a link to the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen

I'll post a part two on smoothie making with more details and photos soon!