Thanks, Ann, for your kind appreciation. Processing of food is not per se a bad thing. Think of pasteurizing raw milk, for example. Pasteurization is a processing technique that has probably saved thousands, if not millions, of lives. Getting rid of potentially harmful bacteria is the benefit of this processing technique that does not diminish the processed food’s inherent nutritional value. When it comes to juicing beetroot or (freeze-) drying it there will be some loss of fibre and potentially of flavonoid content, but it’s still a food item that is overall very beneficial to health.

Come to think about it, cooking, baking, freezing, fermenting are all food processing techniques that make foods more digestible and healthier than their raw, unprocessed version. A boiled egg, for example, is far easier to digest than its raw original.

The negative aspects of processing are the ones that generate a product that has no similarity anymore to anything you find in nature. Just think breakfast cereals. Most of them come with added sugars. That’s the kind of processing I’m skeptical of as a consumer. Consider the juicing of beetroot as a concentration process, that helps you deliver more nutrient (nitrate) per gram than the raw root can offer.