Day 20: 

Juice: Bleeding Apples 

Bleeding Apples:
3 Apples
1/2 Beet (beetroot)

This would be a great juice for Halloween morning to get you in the spirit. Blood red and wonderfully sweet, it is a perfect Trick or Treat snack.

Beetroot or Beets. It is not the first time you have seen beets in a recipe on this blog and it will not be the last. Beets are a longtime juicing favorite.

Beets (beetroot) belong to the chenopod (or Chenopodiaceae) Family - including beets, chard, spinach and quinoa. This is a powerhouse of a family. I mean, have you ever heard anything but good things about those foods? So, its not surprising that this small, blood red vegetable is packed with phytonutrient goodness. Beets are especially known (and researched) for the betalain pigments contained within.

betalain [′bed·ə‚lān]
(biochemistry) 
The name for a group of 35 red or yellow compounds found only in plants of the family Caryophyllales, including red beets, red chard, and cactus fruits.
(thefreedictionary.com/betalain)

Betalains pigments are responsible for rich color of beets and have been shown to provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support. Also, report was recently released showing the that nitrates (contained in betalains) in beets can 'boost stamina'. The study actually used beetroot juice. "Beetroot juice has previously been shown to reduce blood pressure. The researchers believe their findings could help people with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases - and endurance athletes." (Source)

The two main reason to juice beets:

1. Betalain pigments are actually visible in other foods (like the stems of chard or rhubarb), but for beets the high concentration of betalains in the flesh and skin, making this vegetable a betalain powerhouse. So, consuming the beet with the skin on is a great idea. *Here's where a vegetable brush and wash would come in handy before popping them in the juicer. 
2. It has recently been proven that betalains are far less heat stable than most plant pigments. Meaning, you loose the nutrient content the longer you cook them. So, consuming them raw is ideal. *I'm not sure about you, but I am not a fan of just biting into a beet, so chucking them into my juicer is a perfect solution.
3. Beets are also sweet in flavor, so they are another way to sweeten up vegetable juice.

How can it get any better than that?