Blame it on the Beets!

As mentioned yesterday,  Cheryl had a tough time with her 13 mile long run.   We did a slight investigating as to how this event might have happened.    I made the observation that Cheryl started taking a regiment of Beet juice on Tuesday of last week.   We retraced our steps and the events that followed that regiment and decided that Beets WERE, in fact, the cause!

Now you may be wondering:   Why would anyone eat or drink beets in the first place?    Good Question!  Along with flipflops,  I have been asking this question of Humanity ever since my mother force fed me her world famous pickled beets when I was a child.   Disgusting does not even come close!   Now I know that every child is a picky eater..( Except my brother) and there are moments in their childhood where they refuse to eat this thing or that.  But  we all tend to grow out of it as adults in one form or another.   However,  Beets remain on my “Devil root from Hell!” list.  

But apparently there are people who eat them and seem to like them.   I guess they are “good for you”    Here are just a few of the claims people use to try to sell this beet fad to the unsuspecting public.   

They may as well add beets protect you from alien abductions and unprotected sex.  I’m sure they would LOVE to lobby the government to mandate beets be put into the school lunch program;  To ensure “healthy” eating habits.   I’m sure this will fail, because  I have first hand knowledge of what happens when children are force fed beets. 

But, despite all my efforts to warn Cheryl of the “Junk Science” that goes into these claims of super human speed with beets,  she decided to  try them anyway.   I guess if you consume beets in juice form,  ( along with X-ray vision)  it dilates your blood vessels allowing more blood to flow to the oxygen starved muscles. This causes you to stay aerobic and causes you to run slightly ( about 2 %) faster.

In my opinion,  the only reason consuming beet juice would make you faster is by making you run for the bathroom.  I’m sure that there are people who swear that beets are improving their performance in their training and races…but what about the side effect?    Let’s not forget that Beets are FILLED with  a purple pigment betacyanin and a yellow pigment betaxanthin known collectively as betalins.   These pigments can cause some SERIOUS issues for people who consume too many beets.

Cheryl now is skeptical of the promises from Beet Juice.  I’m not sure how I feel about it..as it was a rather expensive experiment.   But Cheryl decided to pour the rest of the beets down the drain and continue her normal routine of water and diet coke.   Hey!   Whatever works, right?

So blame it on the Beets!  Even if they are not to blame, they still taste like junk and cause frequent bathroom visits.   And really,   Who wants that?