Beets are one of the strangest foods in the world. They look dull and lifeless on the outside, but cut them open to reveal beautiful purple flesh. The root vegetable seems like it should taste like a carrot or potato, but instead it has a flavor similar to sweet corn. No other food in the world can turn your urine a different color, and yet you see a bright purple stream after you eat a load of beets.
They’re not just strange, but they’re darn incredible as well! If you want a supremely healthy food to add to your juices, beets are the way to go!
Here are 10 reasons you NEED to start juicing beets today:
1. Lower Blood Pressure
According to a number of studies, beets are effective at lowering your blood pressure. Just one glass of beet juice can lower your systolic blood pressure by up to 5 points, meaning a few glasses a day can help to keep your hypertension in check.
The blood pressure beet benefits come from the nitrates in beets, which your body turns into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps to relax your arteries, capillaries, and veins, in turn reducing blood pressure and increasing blood flow.
2. Fight and Prevent Inflammation
According to WHFoods, one of the main benefits of beets is that it contains a nutrient called betaine. Betaine helps to protect the proteins, enzymes, and cells in your body from the stress placed on them by your environment.
It can reduce swelling, protect your important organs, reduce your risk of a number of chronic diseases, improve your vascular function, and even enhance overall organ function. Beets are loaded with anti-inflammatory properties that can affect your entire body positively!
3. Increase Stamina
Another of the awesome benefits of beet juice is its ability to boost your stamina. Thanks to the nitrates in the beets, your body produces more nitric oxide and your blood vessels are relaxed. As the blood vessels relax, more blood can flow through them. Increased blood flow means an increase in the amount of oxygen that your blood carries to your muscles, giving you greater stamina when doing exercise.
According to one study, those who drank a glass of beet juice before working out lasted for as much as 16% longer than those who did not. It can reduce the amount of oxygen burned by low-intensity exercise, as well as increase your body’s endurance to high-intensity exercise.
4. Improve Detoxification
One of my favorite beets benefits is the fact that it’s so effective at detoxifying the human body.
Beets contain betalin, the nutrient that gives the root vegetable its bright purple color. During the second phase of detoxification, once the toxins have been broken down they are bound to molecules for excretion.
Betalin helps to speed up the process, making it easier for your body to bind those toxins to molecules. Once they are bound, they’re on their way through your body and out to Toilet Town!
Another of the benefits of beet juice is its ability to purify your liver as well as your blood. All of the toxins in your blood usually end up in your liver, which can suffer under the strain. Thanks to beet juice, you can give your liver a break by getting rid of toxins!
5. Fight Cancer
Have you ever noticed that the vegetables with the most colors are the ones that offer the most health benefits? The purple color of beets makes for one of the best beet juice benefits, as the phytonutrients responsible for giving the beet its color can fight cancer.
One study discovered that the extract of beetroot reduced the size of tumor formations in animals. The extract was administered via the animals’ drinking water, and it proved effective at reducing cancers that had spread to multiple organs. Scientists are still looking into using beets as a means to treat prostate, breast, and pancreatic cancer.
6. Boost Libido
Did you know that beets were once used as a sort of primitive Viagra? The ancient Romans treated beets as a medicine, taking it when they needed a boost to their libido.
Science has discovered that beets are loaded with boron, a mineral that is directly linked to the production of your sex hormones. The nitric oxide produced by your body when you eat beets also increases blood flow, the key to increasing your sex drive and potency.
Consuming beets–both in natural form and in delicious beet juice–can help to increase your natural libido and give your sex drive a nice little kick into overdrive!
7. Rich in Antioxidants
Did you know that beets are one of the best sources of natural antioxidants? The rich purple color is a sign that the root vegetable is loaded with healthy nutrients, and you get all sorts of phytochemicals, vitamins, and antioxidants from beets.
It is loaded with nitrates, which naturally help to reduce blood pressure and increase blood flow (as you saw above). Betalain–one of the antioxidants found in beets–can help to fight cancer, heart disease, and swelling. One of the best beet juice benefits is its high antioxidant load!
8. High-Fiber, Low Calorie
When you make orange, mango, or pineapple juice, you’re getting A LOT of natural sugar in your juice. You end up making a juice that is fairly high in calories, which can make weight loss just that much more difficult.
With beets, however, you get a VERY low-calorie juice. An entire glass of beet juice contains less than 70 calories, which means you can down a few glasses without overdoing it on your calorie intake for the day. Plus, beets are loaded with healthy fiber, which flush out toxins, scrub your intestines, and help you to feel full for much longer.
9. Slow-Acting Energy
Did you know that beets are loaded with sugar? We’re not talking the same kind of sugar that you get in other fruits, but it’s a much slower-acting sugar that takes your body longer to absorb.
This means that eating beets gives you a steady source of energy, but without impacting your blood sugar. You won’t suffer from the same energy spike that comes from drinking a glass of fruit juice, but you’ll have energy to burn for much longer.
10. Rich in Vitamins and Minerals
Beets are loaded with Vitamin C, one of the most important vitamins and antioxidants for your body. A glass of beet juice contains almost as much Vitamin C as a glass of orange juice, so you can boost your immunity, speed up healing, and fight toxins much more effectively with beet juice on your side!
Beets also contain beta-carotene–the Vitamin A you get from carrots–B vitamins, folic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and iron. All of these vitamins and minerals will work wonders for your body, and you’ll be much healthier as a result!
Conclusion
The truth is that beets are some of the healthiest foods that you can eat, and they make for a darn tasty juice! If you want to add color and life to your juice, it’s beets all the way.
Juicing beets makes it so much easier to eat them! You don’t have to spend time cooking them, but you can just run them through the juicer and drink the delicious beet juice down. You get all of the nutrients, but with none of the mess and the hours spent waiting for them to cook.
The benefits of the beets are all there, and you get a nice glass of something cold and tasty to drink down!
I am going to try everyone of these (eventually) to see how I feel. At
74 years old I don’t expect much, but I still have some hope.