Beets are Amazing
Beets are amazing food that can lower your blood pressure improving the circulation of blood throughout your body. This is critical for health because high blood pressure (hypertension) may lead to strokes and heart attacks. If you are an athlete or just walking around the block beets provide more efficient use of oxygen so you can go farther on fewer breaths. Free divers, without oxygen tanks, can stay underwater an extra half-minute after eating a cup of beets.1 Runners can beat others by eating beets before a run.2 And, you may be able to think better as well.3
How Beets Work
How this works is fascinating. Beets are one of the most concentrated sources of nitrate, which is absorbed by your stomach, transferred through salivary glands to your tongue, where bacteria convert it to nitrites which are swallowed again and converted to nitric oxide in our cells. Nitric Oxide, NO, is created in the endothelium (the inside of your blood vessels) which makes them relax, reducing blood pressure. Oxygen is more efficiently used by the power plants (mitochondria) in cells providing an increase in energy which enhances athletic performance and provides increased fuel for your brain.3
A Top Nitric Oxide Source
While there are other good sources of nitrates such as green leafy vegetables like spinach, beets are one of the best showing a 21% increase in NO from less than 1/3rd cup of beet juice.4 Research shows that beets are truly a superfood.
Eat Beets Daily
I add beets to my morning smoothie which is still tasty because of the blueberries I include. Fresh beets can be boiled or easily taken from a can.
1. H K Engan, A M Jones, F Ehrenberg, E Schagatay. Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves dry static apnea performance. Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2012 Jul 1;182(2-3):53-9.
2. M Murphy, K Eliot, R M Heuertz, E Weiss. Whole beetroot consumption acutely improves running performance. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012 Apr;112(4):548-52.
3. Gilchrist M, Winyard PG, Fulford J, Anning C, Shore AC, Benjamin N. Dietary nitrate supplementation improves reaction time in type 2 diabetes: development and application of a novel nitrate-depleted beetroot juice placebo. Nitric Oxide. 2014;40:67-74. doi:10.1016/j.niox.2014.05.003.
4. Kroll JL, Werchan CA, Rosenfield D, Ritz T. Acute ingestion of beetroot juice increases exhaled nitric oxide in healthy individuals. PLoS One. 2018;13(1):e0191030. Published 2018 Jan 25. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191030
