While these days beetroot is prized for its waste-free, root-to-tip edibility, the ancient Greeks didn’t care for the root at all, eating just the leaves and offering the valuable taproot to their gods.
By the 16th century, records show beetroot being grown for the consumption of the root and it quickly became a staple vegetable throughout north-eastern Europe.
Beets have been used medicinally throughout history. Hippocrates is said to have used the leaves to bind and seal wounds while Roman physicians prescribed eating the root to cure constipation and fevers.
It’s the antioxidant pigments called betalains that give most varieties
