Canned Pickled Beets: a delicious, healthy way to prepare beets (2024)

FAQs

Are canned pickled beets healthy? ›

The bottom line. Pickled beets are popular on salads or as a side or snack. These naturally sweet root veggies may have a number of health benefits, including improved digestion, physical performance, blood sugar levels, and heart health. However, you should avoid varieties with high levels of added salt or sugar.

Having beetroot that are already cooked and ready-to-use is a time-saving benefit. With only a few exceptions, canned beetroot has about the same nutritional value as fresh beetroot.

That's because pickled beets are rich in nitrates. Nitrates convert into nitric oxide in your body. This helps to relax and widen your blood vessels. Nitrates can improve blood flow and lower blood pressure.

The oxalates found in beets can increase your uric acid level, meaning that too many beets can lead to gout. To avoid this, stick to no more than a single half-cup serving of beets per day.

Beetroots help insulin resistance: Beetroot helps improve insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes and reduces blood sugar. Your body releases metabolites in the process of breaking down food or other substances. The high concentration of this metabolite (nitrate) in beetroot may reduce insulin resistance.

The phytosterols, or plant sterols, present in beets, are structurally similar to cholesterol and can help to lower LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol. In the body, phytosterols compete with the cholesterol to decrease the amount of cholesterol absorbed and lower harmful LDL cholesterol.

Can you eat beets everyday? It's always best to follow a varied diet. Eating a small amount of beetroot every day is unlikely to do any harm, but a high intake could lead to low blood pressure, red or black urine and feces, and digestive problems for anyone with a sensitivity to the nutrients.

Aunt Nellie's Pickled Beets contain no fat, saturated fat or cholesterol; they are kosher and gluten-free.

Draining and rinsing canned vegetables in water can lower the level of their sodium content, notes FASEB. However, rising can also cause a loss of water-soluble vitamins. Therefore, if you are going to rinse canned beets, be sure to use them in a well-rounded, nutritious recipe.

Canned and pickled beets likely contain high amounts of sodium, so if it's heart health you're after, these choices should be limited.

What is the healthiest way to eat beets? ›

Retain the good-for-you nutrients in beets by roasting them or sautéing them instead. Or lightly steam them for just a few minutes, suggests Doyle.

Yes, it turns out pickled beets are still a good source of a variety of vitamins and minerals, all of which support a healthy immune system, adequate nutrient and oxygen flow, nitrate, and help to protect the body against oxidative stress.

The health benefits of pickled beets haven't been studied as extensively as the health benefits of beets and beet juice. That said, there is evidence that eating pickled beets positively affects your health. The vinegar used to pickle beets might help with blood sugar management.

Unfortunately, all of that comes with a high amount of sodium – 350 to 500 milligrams, depending on the brand and around 16 grams of sugar, about the same amount as four teaspoons of sugar. So if you eat pickled beets, keep the quantity small.

What is the difference between canned beets and pickled beets? Pickled beets are canned in some type of vinegar solution and are usually used in salads. These beets are not pickled, just canned in water, and the ingredients are very basic.

Beetroot's antioxidants have been associated with a lower risk of some cancers, cardiovascular disease and dementia, and with supporting liver and kidney health. A bitter-sweet result of the pickling process, however, is that small amounts of these antioxidants are lost.

Beets are high in nitrates which research suggests improve cardiovascular health in several ways. Some studies show beetroot juice supplementation may lower blood pressure and increase blood flow. It increases oxygen uptake, lengthening the time it takes to become fatigued, which allows people to stay active longer.