The little-known benefits of beets

Want to spice up your training? Whatever your health and fitness level, beets could be the answer.

Yes, this tuberous root can improve your stamina – and even help you run faster.

This is all accompanied by a host of other benefits – from helping to lower blood pressure to keeping our brain healthy as we age.

Since ancient Greece, beets were believed to have health-promoting properties, so it is not today that we know that this food is good for our body.

But now, an increasing body of evidence is starting to reveal the extraordinary benefits of this vegetable – and why we should include it in our diet.

secret ingredients

The natural pigments that give beets their dark and strong color are called betalains – and they have high antioxidant power.

A few years ago, research carried out in Italy showed that they are capable of killing colon cancer cells – at least in laboratory studies.

But betalains are not the only magic ingredient. One of the superpowers of beets is that they are incredibly rich in nitrates.

Consuming a lot of nitrate may not seem like a good idea. After all, when nitrates are added as a preservative to processed meats, they can increase the risk of bowel cancer.

However, when we consume the natural nitrate present in vegetables such as beets, something amazing happens.

The bacteria that live in our mouths kick-start nitrates to be transformed into nitrite and then into nitric oxide, a powerful molecule with diverse effects around our body.

Among other things, nitric oxide increases blood flow to various organs, including the penis.

“Nitric oxide is a vasodilator. This causes our blood vessels to dilate, allowing more blood flow and therefore more oxygen to flow to our tissues,” explains Andy Jones, professor of applied physiology at the University of Exeter, in United Kingdom, who spent more than 10 years investigating the effects of beets on sports performance.

Adequate levels of nitric oxide are essential for producing and maintaining an erection, which may explain why the Romans used beetroot juice as an aphrodisiac.

While there is still no clinical trial showing that consuming beetroot juice has a similar effect as viagra, there is evidence of the blood vessel expansion it causes, resulting in other significant changes.

Your heart thanks you

A daily dose of beetroot juice can, for example, have a significant effect on blood pressure.

One study showed that eating two beets a day for a few weeks led to a drop in blood pressure of about 5 millimeters of mercury on average.

“[A pressão arterial] tends to essentially decrease. And it can drop between 3 and sometimes even 9 millimeters of mercury in the case of systolic blood pressure,” says Jones.

If this drop is maintained, it is enough to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack by 10%.

“If you had this kind of change in the entire population, the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, would be greatly reduced”, evaluates the expert.

Research has also shown that beets can have an effect on blood pressure as early as a few hours after eating.

This is because nitric oxide causes blood vessels to dilate, making blood flow more easily.

food for the brain

Beets can also increase blood flow to crucial areas of the brain.

Consumption of beetroot juice has been proven to stimulate cognition and improve the ability to make quick decisions.

There are even suggestions that it may be helpful in maintaining brain health as we age.

One study showed that combining beetroot juice with exercise can increase connectivity in regions of the brain that control movement.

The parts of the brain networks associated with motor function in people who adopted both habits began to look more like those of young adults.

So it looks like this combination can actually help keep your brain younger.

Why does it happen? Again, probably due to improved blood flow.

Research suggests that drinking beetroot juice increases blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, improving brain performance.

Oral microbiome balance

One study also found that drinking beetroot juice twice a day for just ten days can change your oral bacteria mix for the better.

Participants who adopted the habit showed an increase in bacteria linked to good vascular and cognitive health – as well as reduced levels of bacteria associated with disease and inflammation.

Increasing healthy populations of oral bacteria can help fight the decline in the body’s ability to produce nitric oxide as we age and pave the way for better long-term health.

Want to fuel the race?

Recent studies also show how this tuberous root can help you run faster.

Nitric oxide improves blood flow to our lungs and muscles, resulting in faster delivery of oxygen.

“There is potential for the muscle to take in more oxygen and distribute that oxygen within itself more efficiently because of the effects of nitric oxide,” says Jones.

In a 2009 study, he found that drinking beetroot juice helps increase stamina during high-intensity exercise by up to 16%.

According to research, nitric oxide also helps reduce oxygen consumption during exercise, slowing the rate at which people reach exhaustion.

The discovery was a huge hit with athletes:

“Apparently, before the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, you couldn’t buy beet juice in London for love or money, all the athletes were behind.”

The vegetable was also shown to have significant effects on speed.

In a 2012 study, participants who had consumed beets ran 5% faster in the last 1.8 km of a 5K than those who had not eaten the food — and their rate of perceived exertion was lower.

If the idea is to improve sports performance, how long before the start of the event (whether it’s a race or a match) should you consume beets then?

“About 2-3 hours, because it takes a little time to process the nitrate,” explains Jones.

What is the ideal amount?

Jones advises two to three medium beets, or a serving of beetroot juice a day — he says, that’s all you need to see positive effects.

“We found that about 6 to 10 millimoles (a millimole of any substance is defined as the molecular – or atomic – weight of that substance in milligrams) of nitrate is what matters, and that equates to 2 to 3 beets.”

“But I would imagine that if you kept eating beets at a lower level, but more chronically, you would have similar kinds of effects.”

“I think we all have to look to improve our nitrate intake every day and every week,” he recommends.

Pay attention to the method of preparation

The precious nitrates are water-soluble, so be careful when cooking beets.

Boiling it will cause the nitrates to leak into the cooking liquid, and you won’t reap as many benefits.

“If you throw away the cooking water, you’re probably going to lose most of the nitrates,” notes Jones.

It’s important to remember that most of the beets we buy are vacuum packed: some brands pre-boil, others don’t.

Pickled beets tend to be pre-cooked, so the nitrate content will likely be too low to get the full benefits.

If you really want to get the most out of this vegetable, it may be best to consume it raw, roasted or juiced.

*In the BBC Radio 4 series Just One Thing, doctor Michael Mosley discusses in different episodes what you could do for your health if you had only one choice.