5 Reasons to eat more root vegetables

Sometimes in the health food world, root vegetables get a bad reputation because they are dense with carbohydrates. News flash, all carbohydrates are not bad and not created equally. Let’s put this thought process to rest and think about the foods as a whole. 

​Root vegetables are REAL WHOLE FOODs and do not have any added ingredients and they are rich in nutrients to boot.

Root vegetables are packed with fiber and antioxidants, and low in calories, fat, and cholesterol. Root vegetables are also excellent sources of carotenoids. These are naturally occurring pigments that may decrease the risk of certain cancers and help protect your eyes.  Root vegetables balance hormones by balancing blood sugar through fiber. 

​Root vegetables evolved to store nutrients for the plants themselves, so they offer us a true powerhouse of energy, minerals, vitamins and more.

​The root vegetable family includes:
beets, burdock, carrots, celeriac, daikon, jicama, kohlrabi, onions, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, rutabaga, taro, turnips, yams, yucca and more. Pretty much any vegetable you find underground as the edible root of a plant can be considered in the family.

Here are 5 Reasons Why Root Vegetables Should Be Eaten Everyday

1. Dietary fiber. Root veggies tend to be rich in complex carbohydrates. This includes dietary fiber, which promotes better blood glucose stability and improved digestive health. Dietary fiber is something most of us could definitely use more of!  The Western diet is low in fiber, so it is important to make a conscious effort to add more in.
2. Resistant starch. Many root veggies also have significant amounts of what’s called resistant starch. This is a type of complex carbohydrate that doesn’t easily break down in the gut. It arrives intact in the colon and ferments there, feeding gut bacteria and producing beneficial short-chain fatty acids.
3. Vitamins and minerals. Because of their close contact with the soil, root veggies are particularly rich in minerals like potassium, zinc, copper, phosphorus and magnesium. However, mineral content is dependent on the health of the soil they’re grown in — another reason why organic is better. 
4. They are in-season. While you can find root vegetables at the grocery store year-round you should be able to find fresh and local root vegetables in-season for at least 6 months out of the year, that’s pretty amazing! They grow best from fall to spring, so the only months you will be missing out are your summer months and that’s when we don’t want our ovens on anyway  When we eat what’s in season we are not only helping the local agriculture but we are also eating food when it has it’s peak nutrient values, leading to overall health.
5. ​They are heart-healthy. This is normally a dead giveaway, veggies protect the heart. However, most people think of their more watery veggies like kale, cucumbers, spinach and celery when they are thinking of heart health. Root vegetables can also prevent against heart disease as they are higher in potassium, lower in sodium and have a great amount of fiber per bite compared to the Standard American Diet.

But what about the carbs?  
Limiting your carb intake because of concerns about weight gain or insulin resistance?  You may be trying to avoid “starchy” root vegetables like potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, carrots and parsnips.  

But “low carb” doesn’t mean no carb. If you’re “not eating carbs” it is better to focus on cutting out simple sugars like sucrose and fructose. Both are readily absorbed in the gut, unlike the resistant starch present in many of the root veggies we’re talking about.

Some great ways to get them into your diet daily, is by:

• Roasting a sheet pan of various kinds - use as a side dish or toss them in salads or frittata's
• Bake Sweet potato toast for your eggs 
• Beet salad
• Shred carrot into salads - or make a carrot salad
• Add parsnips & sweet potato to a soup
• Add Radishes to a salad

However you choose to add root vegetables to your daily diet, you’ll begin to reap the hormonal benefits in no time.