Beets: The Hippest Food Of 2016 (With 12 Trendy Ways To Consume Them)

For anyone who has watched Doug, the word "beets" has a much different connotation than for anyone who hasn't. In this cultish, classic cartoon, a band by the name of The Beets was the band to listen to. With hit songs like "Shout Your Lungs Out," "Killer Tofu," and "I Need More Allowance," The Beets plainly and simply rocked.

As fate may have it, Beta vulgaris, a plant food we more regularly call the "beet," also plainly and simply rocks. Humans normally consume the reddish purple, bulbous root of a variety of Beta vulgaris that goes by garden beet or beetroot. At about 45 calories per 100 grams, the garden beet is incredibly low in calories. There's virtually no fat in beets, they have no cholesterol, and they're packed with antioxidants. Beets are high in sugar (only cane sugar ranks above them in terms of natural sugar content), but the sugar from beets is much more nutritious than the kind you'll find in a candy bar and renders them a great source of natural sweetness and energy.

Eating beets will introduce glycine betaine into your diet. Glycine betaine is a phytochemical compound that has been shown to lower the risk of coronary heart disease as well as stroke. These nutritious roots also are high in folates, a tool pivotal in the synthesis of DNA within human cells. If you like receiving the healthy benefits of vitamins like vitamin B3, B5, and B6 and minerals including manganese, copper, magnesium, and potassium, then we think consuming beets should be on the top of your nutritional to-do list.

You can certainly cook beets. In fact, Health Warrior has a great Roasted Veggies With Lemony Chia Tahini Dressing that incorporates golden beets, a sweeter and less earthy variety of beet than the standard red ones.

Click here for the Roasted Veggies With Lemony Chia Tahini Dressing recipe.

If you're looking for something a bit more dessert-like to do with beets, consider trying this refreshing Mango Beet Tofu Pops recipe. Or, if you want to drink your beets, then you can't go wrong with Terra's Kitchen's Beet & Banana Smoothie recipe.

If you don't want to cook at all, though, there are still some great ways to get your beets in (although we really suggest trying one of those three recipes). The following nine companies produce nutritious beet-based products that should be considered a viable healthy inclusion in anyone's diet.

Amazing Grass
Looking for beets in powdered form? Amazing Grass's Protein Superfood nutrition shake is for you! This organic, all-in-one protein nutrition shake thoughtfully combines a superfood blend of plant-based protein (pea, hemp, chia, and quinoa) with farm-fresh greens (wheat grass, alfalfa, barley grass, spinach, spirulina, chlorella, and broccoli) and nutrient-dense fruits and veggies (açaí, banana, carrot, goji, pineapple, sweet potato, raspberry, rose hips, and, last but not least, beets). With a delicious chocolate peanut butter flavor and satisfying texture, this superfood combo is a convenient way to get the whole food nutrition your body needs with an amazing flavor your taste buds will love!

Beet Performer
Beet Performer is a 100 percent natural, convenient, and great tasting performance juice. Available in two flavors (Beet Juice with B12 and Beet Juice with passion fruit juice), Beet Performer provides all the health and ergogenic benefits of beet juice, optimized for athletes on the go.

Biotta
Made from freshly harvested beets, Biotta Beet Juice is uniquely sweet and earthy. These liquefied beets are an excellent source of potassium and a source of naturally occurring dietary nitrates.

Crunchies
Crunchies, the only U.S. consumer freeze-dry brand that is vertically integrated farm to fork, produces snacks featuring only one ingredient (a fruit or a vegetable). Like all Crunchies products, its new Freeze-Dried Beets contain no added sugar and no artificial flavors or coloring and are non-GMO, gluten-free, vegan, kosher, and halal certified. In addition to their sensory appeal and nutritional density, beets have the ideal composition for freeze-drying, a low-pressure drying process that allows for high retention of nutrients and antioxidant phytochemicals. Unlike dehydration, freeze-drying requires no additives for preservation and generally means a longer shelf life, lighter weight, and more of that satisfying crunch.

Good Health
Good Health makes Sea Salt Veggie Stix that contain a proprietary blend of vegetables including spinach, broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, and, of course, beets. They have no artificial colors, no hydrogenated oils, and no added preservatives.

pūrjus
pūrjus's 100% beet juice [sic] is made with solely lacto-fermented organic beetroot juice. In every bottle, you'll be sure to get two servings of this delicious root vegetable.

Red Ace
Backed by science and enhanced by breakthrough technology, Red Ace has created a nitric oxide-packed organic beet juice shot that banks on the conversion of dietary nitrates into nitric oxide. Each two-ounce glass bottle of Red Ace contains three organic beets, making it extremely high in natural nitrates and a quick and easy way to acquire all the performance, health, and nutritional benefits of this earthy superfood. With only 100 percent organic beet juice concentrate, organic lemon juice, and organic flavors, Red Ace offers one of the most delicious and refreshing options on the market. Drinking just one two-ounce bottle of Red Ace daily can increase stamina, improve circulation, and support cardiovascular wellness.

Ruby Rockets
A mouthwatering mixture of strawberries, lemons, carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets, Ruby Rockets Rock-It Red Frozen Pops blend healthy, whole foods into an easy-to-eat sweet treat. They're non-dairy, just 25 calories a pop (this may be the first time we've said "a pop" and meant it as, literally, "per pop"), and have no added sugar.

Suja
Suja Juice makes a Sweet Beets smoothie thats nutritional profile is hard to beet (we've been waiting to use this pun this whole time and hope you've enjoyed it as much as we did). Suja describes it as: "Not your grandma's beet juice! Sweet Beets is a deliciously sweet smoothie, kicked up with turmeric to give you a lift anytime, anywhere."

Suja also makes a juice called Purify, which it describes as "a spring-cleaning for your body and taste buds." It contains apple, carrot, celery, cucumber, lemon, and beets.