Beets are a great health food. They fight cancer so well that you have to be cautious. They also fight birth defects and vision problems.
Beets first appeared in the coasts of the Mediterranean, and were grown for their greens, as Swiss Chard still is. A couple of thousand years ago they also started eating the roots. Now many gardeners cook up some beet greens and some beetroot in the same meal.
Dr Ferenczi in Csoma hospital in Hungary has been using raw beets to cure cancer, and nothing else since the late 1950s. The only problem is the same one as you get with heroic injections of vitamin C. If you eat too much raw beetroot, it can kill the cancer faster than your liver can dispose of the waste products. So if you have a large cancer, start with small quantities of beetroot, and gradually increase them until you start to feel unwell, and then back off the amount. You may get a fever if your liver is being asked to work too hard.
You could probably get the same results with vitamin C injections, but having to increase the quantity gradually would mean multiple injections, whereas raw beetroot tastes good.
You can buy dried beetroot powder in many health food shops. That allows you to use large quantities, so remember the precaution.
There is quite a high level of oxalic acid in the tops (bad for you) so you should probably steam them. You can have two stacked pots, the upper with perforated bottom, and a lid. Put water in the lower and greens in the top and boil until the greens start to collapse a little. Season to taste. Another way is to have a bamboo or other perforated platform for the tops, inside a single pot with boiling water. It is the steam that does the cooking. Don't leave them till they are all collapsed and soggy. The less cooking you use the more healthy they will be.
