Why You Should Be Eating Beets
Beetroot, more commonly known as beets is a hearty vegetable that has been cultivated for thousands of years. Those who love beats may describe the flavor as hearty and rich while others think it tastes like, in simple words, dirt. It may take an acquired taste to love beets but after discovering their amazing health benefits you may just want to learn to love them.
Beets are packed full of important vitamins and minerals which is what gives them such powerful capabilities for our health. Some of these nutrients include iron, copper, magnesium, b vitamins, potassium and many others. We’ve researched what makes beets so special besides their stunning gem-like color. Read along to discover what they could do for you!
1. They Can Aid In Heart Health
It’s important that we take care of our body especially the vital organs. Studies have shown that beets may do wonders for maintaining a healthy heart. Firstly, they contain betaine and folate, both of which can help lower blood levels of homocysteine. Maintaining a lower level of homocysteine is important because if too high, you could have a higher risk of artery damage as well as heart disease.
Secondly, a proper blood flow is highly important for maintaining a healthy heart. Some studies have shown that beetroot juice could help improve blood flow. This is due to the dietary source of nitrates beet juice has to offer. Keep your heart beating strong with this healthy vegetable.
2. Can Help Maintain Healthy Blood Pressure
Maintaining your blood pressure goes hand in hand with encouraging a healthy lifestyle and a healthy heart. While high blood pressure is a common problem some say it could be managed by approaching it naturally such as with the foods we eat. This is, however, a serious medical condition so always consult your doctor prior to making any changes.
Beets can help lower your blood pressure because they’re high in nitrate. Our bodies take nitrate and will turn it into a gas called nitric oxide. This gas works by relaxing the muscles in our blood vessels and this, in turn, ensures that our arteries are properly dilated. Further, the gas also works by preventing our blood from thickening and clotting which promotes healthy blood flow and in the result, lowers blood pressure.
3. Beets Boost Your Energy!
When the afternoon slump rolls around many of us reach for a cup of coffee, however, some healthy foods good give us just the boost we’ve been searching for. Studies have shown that beets can be great energy boosters, even for athletes who need the perfect boost to get through a serious workout.
Once again, thanks to nitrates, beets are a natural energy booster. Some studies have shown that nitrates improve the efficiency of mitochondria, this is what produces energy in our cells. Keep in mind to it could take 2-3 hours for blood nitrate levels to peak so consider sipping on freshly pressed beet juice or eat beets 2-3 hours before working out.
4. They Can Encourage Weight Loss
Maintaining weight and losing weight can both be a difficult task especially when we’re surrounded by so many appealing but unhealthy foods. Recent studies have shown that beets could help encourage weight loss for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, they’re extremely low in calories, just one cup of beets is a total of 50 calories. Secondly, they’re high in soluble and insoluble fiber which helps us to feel full for longer. Last but certainly not least, beets are high in magnesium which could encourage detoxification within the body as well as increase our metabolism.
5. Beets May Increase Immunity
Changing seasons can both be exhilarating and daunting. Often, seasonal changes can bring the common cold. To help boost your immunity to fight off something such as the common cold you may want to consider eating more beets.
Like many vegetables, beets are very nutrient dense. They contain Vitamin C, B-complex and loads of antioxidants, all of which help to relieve minor aches and pains as well as prevent fatigue. All of these healthy nutrients could seriously boost your immunity to help fight off the common cold and fevers.
6. They’re A Great Source of Fiber
Having a healthy dose of fiber in your daily diet is important for several reasons. It could encourage weight loss, it could lower blood sugar levels as well as fight unwanted constipation. Generally, it is recommended that the average woman intakes around 25 grams of fiber a day and around 38 grams for men. One cup of beets contains almost 4 grams of fiber would be a great addition to your daily intake.
Further, beets happen to contain both soluble and insoluble fiber which does a lot for our body. For example, soluble fiber could help lower cholesterol while insoluble fiber could help prevent constipation. Lastly, a diet that is thriving with fiber could also help prevent chronic diseases. All in all, it is clear that fiber is extremely important.
7. They Help Promote Healthy Digestion
A beets fiber content is what makes it an excellent food for promoting healthy digestion. Some symptoms of an unhealthy gut include chronic bad breath, mood swings, skin problems, and digestive issues like bloating or chronic constipation. All of these qualities can add up to make one quite miserable. In an attempt to help avoid these symptoms you could try adding beets to your diet.
Furthermore, we have to thank not just the fiber content found in beets but also betaine which can also help reduce the risk of developing hemorrhoids and constipation. A happy digestive system could lead to a happier you!
8. They Can Prevent Anemia
Anemia is a condition that can occur if your blood lacks healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a red protein that has the duty of transporting oxygen in the blood vertebrates. If your hemoglobin is low or abnormal and or there are not enough or abnormal red blood cells then the cells in your body won’t get enough oxygen.
Consuming beets more regularly could help prevent anemia because red beets have a high amount of iron. Iron has an important duty of regenerating red blood cells as well as preventing anemia. Beets are also rich in vitamin C and some studies show that this vitamin could help boost iron absorption.
9. Beets Benefit Your Liver
The liver is a vital organ that is in charge of filtering blood that flows through the digestive tract before it passes through the rest of the body. It’s capable of deciphering what is good for us and what is consider waste. The liver has quite a big job and eating more foods to help with this process could benefit you.
Firstly, due to being high in antioxidants and many other nutrients allows the beet to a have powerful cleansing and detoxing capabilities. Some of these include betalains which are pigments with heightened anti-inflammatory properties that encourage detoxification, betaine encourages the liver cells to eliminate toxins and pectin is a fiber that can diminish toxins that have been removed from the liver.
10. They Can Help Maintain A Healthy Brain
Aging can take a serious toll on our brain. This becomes more evident when the simple forgotten tasks become a regular thing. To help keep your brain and cognitive function nice and healthy you may want to consider consuming beets more regularly.
It is known that with age, the blood flow to our brain decreases which is part of the reason for decreased cognitive function and some studies say that eating beets could help prevent that. Further, due to nitrates found in beets, makes them an excellent food to improve brain neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change and adapt.
11. Beets Help With Anti-Aging
A healthy brain is definitely linked to feeling younger and healthy which we talked about previously but beets can do more anti-aging wonders too. Beets are high in folate which can stimulate the production and repair of cells both of which can help prevent premature aging.
Furthermore, a healthy dose of folate in your diet could help fight off unwanted wrinkles and other poor skin conditions. Along with folate, beets are also a great source of vitamin A which could help prevent age-related vision loss. If you spend a lot of money on anti-aging skin care remedies then you may want to try saving some money and simply add more beets to your diet.
12. They Are Rich In Antioxidants
A diet rich in antioxidants is also important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Studies have shown that antioxidants can help fight off harmful free radicals as well as could prevent oxidative stress and damage to the cells in our body. Further, some studies also believe that antioxidants could prevent several types of chronic diseases.
Beets are thriving in antioxidants which is another great reason why we should have them more frequently. To be specific, beets are rich in phytonutrients called betalains and this is what gives beets their powerful antioxidant properties. It is also was is in charge of giving beets their deep color.
