Score one for beet juice... again!
A new research study has found that beets do indeed reduce blood pressure, as suspected.
But their effect was underestimated.
According to the numbers, just one cup of beet juice can reduce your systolic blood pressure — the first number in a reading, i.e. 120/80 — by up to 10 points!
That's huge!
Apparently, the secret is in the plant's nitrate content, which can be absorbed whether you eat the beets, juice them, or consume a dried beet juice concentrate like BeetMax.
Nitrate is absorbed from the soil into the beet. When you eat (or juice) the beet, your body turns the nitrate into nitric oxide, which has a relaxing effect on blood vessels, which in turn lowers blood pressure.
It's the same compound in beets that has been found to help athletes increase their exercise performance.
But wait... there's more! :)
In addition to nitrate, beets also contain boron — and boron can help curb serious sexual health issues.
Research has shown that, as men age, boron intake can increase testosterone levels by as much as 50%.
Testosterone is the hormone responsible for sex drive in both men and women. In men, low testosterone can lead to loss of muscle mass, fatigue, mood swings, and depression.
But boron may be even more important for women.
In addition to maintaining healthy testosterone levels, boron helps women use and metabolize estrogen. It also balances calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, which helps maintain bone strength.
Studies show that diets high in boron-containing fruits and vegetables (like beets) help prevent calcium loss and bone demineralization in postmenopausal women.
In fact, vegetarian diets like The Hallelujah Diet provide nearly double the boron intake of meat-based diets — which can actually produce boron deficiency.
This is bad combination.
Without boron to balance calcium levels, combined with the fact that meat has an inherent overabundance of serum phosphate (which causes calcium to be excreted in the urine), a meat-based diet is an open door to osteoporosis.
Did you have any idea that beets could do all this? Neither did we!
So, let's recap... beets can:
Which beet benefit motivates you?
- reduce your blood pressure
- increase your exercise performance
- help put you (and your spouse) in the mood
- help women balance estrogen
- balance macro minerals
- prevent bone demineralization and osteoporosis
