Beet is a member of root vegetables and it can bring a lot of health benefits . Human beings started consuming beets since the 16th century and it became very popular.
Before investigating the health benefits of beets, let’s take a closer look at beets nutritional value to understand this vegetable better.
Do you know that about 87 percent of beets is water and 100 grams of beets provides no more than 50 calories. About 8 percent is carbohydrates and they exist mainly in the form of fructose and glucose.
Regarding the glycemic index which is used to count the increasing level of blood sugar after you eat something, the score for beets is 61, among the medium.
Another important nutritional value of beets lies in fiber, which makes up for 2-3 grams per 100 grams of beets.
Besides, vitamins and essential minerals play a vital part in making health benefits of beets.
There is a considerable amount of folate, known as vitamin B9, in beets. Therefore, beets are very beneficial for tissues and cells.
Other elements include iron, manganese and potassium. With this nutrition profile, there is no denying health benefits of beets on human health.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF BEETS
Here are top the best health benefits of beets that have been known for thousands of years.
1. BOOSTS STAMINA
One of the first and also best health benefits of beets is to improve your stamina, which means to support your physical strength. The amount of dietary nitrates in beets can limit the use of oxygen when you experience intense physical performance. Specifically, nitrates in beets have significant influence on the effectiveness of mitochondria, which takes responsibility of the energy production.
Beets get high appreciations from those involved in running and cycling .
The improvement in your physical performance is one of the most striking points in beets health benefits.
2. LOWER RISK OF HEART DISEASE
The second among the best health benefits of beets is to lessen the possibility of heart disease.
The rich content of folate in beets is the main reason it is beneficial for people who want to stay away from heart disease.
And guess what? You can find much folate in watercress nutrition. To be clear, diatary folate is responsible for the reduction in coronary heart disease risk (4). Some studies published the result that folate can have positive impacts on the prevention of stroke
Bottom Line: With the support of beets nutrition, you can protect yourself from dangerous heart disease.
3. REDUCED BLOOD PRESSURE
When the blood pressure goes up beyond control, it is referred to as hypertension and it does harm to our heart health.
Hypertension may trigger premature death and in fact, it is really one of the leading fatal causes .
The consumption of vegetables and fruits, containing many inorganic nitrates, such as celery, can deal with cardiovascular diseases (7). Therefore, undeniably, this is one of the best health benefits of beets.
Bottom Line: Thanks to its richness of inorganic nitrates, beets can prevent high blood pressure, thus avoiding many problems that come with it.
4. BETTER BRAIN
The list of health benefits of beets will be complete if its positive effects on the brain functioning are not mentioned.
According to some studies, the participation of nitric oxide is good for the learning process and memory capacity (8).
This it is because nitric oxide improves flow of blood into the brain more efficiently.
Besides, for older adults, who struggle with their brain function, nitrate-rich foods, like beets, are scientifically proved to be good (9).
Another study in 2010, with 14 around-74-year-old participants, demanded them to use beet juice.
After 2 days, more blood went to the brain and their executive functioning skills were signifciantly better. The same process can be replicated if you use simple fruits, such as guava.
5. SUPPORT LIVER
One of the most amazing health benefits of beets is fostering detoxification, which helps you have healthier liver.
Because of a substantial amount of betaine in beets, your liver might benefit. This substance cuts down fat concentration in the liver .
Besides, it is also a promising agent to help you stay away from fatty liver disease, with evidence based on some studies.
If you want to know more about liver improvement, artichokes are another choice.
Bottom Line: Nutrition value of beets can be shown in the improvement of your liver condition.
6. TREAT
INDIGESTION
The rich content of fiber is said to contribute to many great health benefits of beets, one of which is to deal with digestive problems. In addition, betaine which is present in this vegetable is claimed to have good impacts on the digestive system (13). Therefore, the suggestion is to use beets if you need to cope with a series of problems, such as hemorrhoids or constipation.
7. PREVENT CANCER
To explain one of the most amazing health benefits of beets the presence of betalains in this ingredient must be stressed.
Betalains are a strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substance to fight against oxidative stress in our body.
As a result, it makes beets become excellent at preventing chronic inflammation, which may lead to an uncontrolled development of cancer cells.
Of course, you can see a great number of antioxidants in other sources, like dragon fruit nutrition.
Some researches carried out in lab ovatory concentrated on human tumor cells indicated that beets possibly reduce the risk of cancer in stomach, colon or breast. Bottom Line: Because of many antioxidants, beets may protect you from cancer.
8. VISION HEALTH
Among health benefits of beets, its positive impact on our eyes. This advantage mainly results from nutritional value of beets, namely, the presence of lutein. There is more than 275 micrograms of lutein in a cup of green beets.
Lutein has great impacts on prevention of eye-related problems. In some studies investigating old people, lutein might reduce the risk of macular degeneration. In addition, the content of beta carotene in beets also makes great contributions to its effect.
9. ANEMIA TREATMENT
Even in the anemia treatment, we can still find one of the most surprising health benefits of beets. Anemia is characterized as lack of red blood cells in your body (18). The amount of iron in beets boosts the cleansing quality for this vegetable. This means that beets can provide more oxygen inside the body and enrich red blood cells (19).
Bottom Line: Nutrition value of beets, iron, can surprise you with its advantage in the anemia treatment.
10. COPE WITH
ARTHRITIS
Last but not the least, arthritis can be treated efficiently with the support of beets. Because of alkaline quality, beets make intervention in the accumulation of deposits around your joints, which causes much trouble in daily life.
This can be outstanding among beets health benefits. There are over 52 million adults suffering from this problem And beet is just one of many natural remedies for arthritis. You can find this among health benefits of avocados.
SIDE EFFECTS
In general, looking at beets nutrition, we can be certain that anyone can benefit from beets. Nevertheless, there are always some points that need noticing when you use anything. And beets are not an exception.
First, those who have kidney stones should skip beets. They provide a considerable number of oxalates, which might worsen the appearance of kidney stones (21). Besides, fructans in beets might lead to some irritating digestive problems, especially for those who are quite sensitive. For example, irritable bowel syndrome is a common problem when it comes to side effects of beets.
On the other hand, many people find it more interesting to use beet juice. However, if you consume the juice too much, it can trigger tightness in your throat. This tightness prevents you from speaking normally. Lastly, as beets enhance detoxification, low fever might happen to somebody, although the fact is that it is quite rare.
