Burning throat after eating Beetroot?

[Bry15]

Hi, hope I have got this in the right place.

The other day I pulled up a couple of my beets, and when preparing them for the roasting pot treated myself to a raw slice of one of them. Straight away my throat burned up and continued for several hours.

I read that sometimes raw beets can contain some acid (I forget the name), I was wondering how common this actually is? Could it be the way they have grown this year? Or the variety? I have a few others look they they are ready to be eaten, but I'm a bit wary of them now.

[bario1]

I had this the other day! They were Bolthardy, and they were small (even though they've been in for ages, they just haven't swollen like some of the others have... I probably just won't eat the other small ones raw. It wasn't a particularly pleasant sensation! The bigger ones, and other varieties tasted lovely and sweet raw.

[meteor]

Never heard of this before, thanks for the warning, I often used the thinnings as salad leaves but never was tempted to try the small roots raw, don't think I ever will now.

[bario1]

Young beets are usually very sweet and tender, but these weren't young. The tops were huge, but there was no root showing above the soil, and when pulled up, the root was smaller than a golf ball. Don't know what happened to them, but I'll be avoiding them in future.

Perhaps I grew them too close together, they were a mass of foliage and the ones on the outside of the 'block' seemed to mature into proper roots. Do the tops of the roots need sunlight to swell?

[Bigmallly]

Apparently you can eat them raw, they're even beneficial in small quantities:

Can You Eat Beetroots Raw? - Beetroot Recipes

[bario1]

Yes, I eat them raw a lot, sliced really thin using a mandolin. I also bung them in my juicer, with kale, apples, carrots and ginger - yum!

[meteor]

Rang my Polish friend who absolutely loves beetroot and asked him, he says the skin of beets especially as the mature contain a lot of oxalic acid and should be peeled before eating raw. Bario1 that may explain your experience with the older ones.

[jacob]

I've never had this and mostly eat beetroot raw, grated. I don't usually peel...

[Yasai]

I've had this happen a few times but no idea why. It's totally put me off of eating them raw.