Beetroot juice boosts stamina...

I used to do it by finely grating beetroots, then squeezing the juice out through some muslin... a long and hard process and everything gets stained red. When Sveta and I were living in Armenia, we had an electric vegetable juicer in our flat. I tried juicing beetroot with that... a not-quite-so-long and hard process and everything got stained red. According to the article, the test subjects were given half a litre of beetroot juice every day for six weeks. It could be done, but you'd best redecorate your kitchen in muted shades of burgundy and maroon before embarking on the course.

I found out about this on the BBC website - here's the link. The BBC headline had the 'boosts stamina' bit in inverted commas. That means, 'here's another bit of bullshit to feed the current obsession with healthy eating and pad out our shitty website, but we reserve the right to publish an article tomorrow on how too much beetroot shrivels your gonads'... sorry, that should have been, 'shrivels your gonads'.

My inclination is to ignore the hype and just stick with my long held belief that beetroot is pretty good for you. I'll carry on using it in the kitchen as normal. And if anyone is interested in trying a recipe or two, here are some of my beetroot recipes.