Including beetroot juice in your diet is a great way to give your body a boost of nourishment, and you can be on your way to becoming a more energetic and healthy person. Improving blood flow, opening up blood vessels to increase the flow of oxygen, and lowering blood pressure are just some of the benefits of beetroot juice that recent studies are showing.
What exactly is in beetroot juice that makes it such a beneficial part of your diet?
Beetroot juice is essentially like taking a vitamin pill that includes healthy carbohydrates. It contains a high amount of nitrates and antioxidants that are essential for optimum health. It also has a variety of vitamins, minerals and trace elements that benefit specific functions in the body.
You may have heard of nitrates as an unhealthy preservative that is added to bacon and other cured meats, which anyone wanting to eat a healthy diet should avoid. This is true of nitrates that are added to hot-dogs and bacon, but nitrates occurring naturally in beets, along with the antioxidants that are also high in beets, are very safe and give many benefits. Your body changes nitrates into nitric oxide, which is responsible for dilating blood vessels, and improving the flow of oxygen.
Antioxidants are talked about a lot these days, and health promoters are constantly advising you to increase your antioxidant intake to prevent cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases. The reason antioxidants are important is because they reduce the damage done by free radicals in your body. Free radicals occur as the result of the natural process of your body making energy, but there are other factors such as pollution, herbicides, too much sun exposure and cigarette smoke that can drastically increase the amount of free radicals in the body.
Simply put, free radicals are molecules lacking an electron, and this causes them to be unstable. To become whole again, they search for their missing part, and this is when they begin to do harm to healthy cells. This process will eventually lead to a weak immune system, chronic diseases and the failure of entire organs. Antioxidants play the important role of giving each molecule the missing part for which it is looking, and consequently, preventing the damage they can do. The high content of antioxidants in beetroot juice makes it an easy way to get a good dose of antioxidants in your diet every day.
A remarkable aspect of beetroot juice is that it not only helps to prevent and fight certain diseases, but it is actually working in your body to promote health. The wide variety of minerals and vitamins it comprises makes it one of the most rejuvenating vegetables.
Benefits Of Beetroot Juice: Things It Is Doing In Your Body
Boosting Stamina and Strength: Studies have shown that regular intake of beets improves a person’s stamina and heart function, which increases the length of time they can exercise.
Cleansing Your Blood and Liver: Beetroot juice works as a tonic for your blood, liver, and spleen. It helps in the treatment of diseases of the liver, such as jaundice and cirrhosis. It soothes and helps to balance the entire digestive system.
Fighting Cancer: Research is showing that components found in beetroot juice help to prevent the formation of cancerous tumors. It is especially beneficial for the colon where it encourages the growth of cancer-fighting cells.
Increasing Blood Flow to the Brain: This makes it important brain food for older people, and it may help to delay the onset of dementia.
Increasing Your Metabolism: The results of clinical studies are showing that it is helpful for weight loss as it speeds up the metabolism. Beetroot juice also aids in weight loss because it increases the absorption of oxygen, which enables a person to exercise longer.
Preventing Birth Defects: This is because it is a good source of one of the B victims, folic acid, which protects against defects. Making it an essential addition to the diet of pregnant people and small children.
Helps to Treat Anemia: The high content of iron binds oxygen to blood cells. As iron supplements can be difficult to absorb and causes other problems, beetroot juice is a natural way to get an abundant source of iron. The body can absorb iron much better this way, making it valuable in treating anemia.