Rarely do we come across a food that has been scientifically proven to be so beneficial to human health as beets are. According to Cronometer, One pound of beets (453g) supplies the following percentage of the RDA:
91% folates
64% manganese
45% iron
37% copper
25% phosphorus
29% potassium
Beets also contain powerful dietary nitrates, and nitric oxide from vegetable nitrates can improve oxygen efficiency as well as oxygen delivery by vasodilating blood vessels. It comes as no surprise then that beet juice can reportedly lower your o2 requirements when doing physical activity!
After drinking 2 cups of beet juice, participants in a study needed 19% less oxygen to get the same performance output while riding a bike, and their endurance has improved too, with their time-to-exhaustion rising from 9'43'' to 11'15'' before and after respectively.
Beets were found to be effective in lowering blood pressure and may also be beneficial for brain function, as a study has suggested that the nitrates in vegetables may be used to treat age-related cognitive decline by increasing blood flow to the ageing parts of the brain.
Enjoy this minute and a half video, created by myself, about the power of nitrates!
Research Referenced:
A toast to health and performance! Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure and the O2 cost of exercise
http://jap.physiology.org/content/110/3/585.long
Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective, and antiplatelet properties of dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18250365
Dietary Nitrate Provides Sustained Blood Pressure Lowering in Hypertensive Patients
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/11/24/HYPERTENSIONAHA.114.04675
Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19661447
Dietary inorganic nitrate improves mitochondrial efficiency in humans.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21284982
Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves dry static apnea performance.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22588047
Influence of dietary nitrate on the physiological determinants of exercise performance: a critical review.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25068792
Cardiorespiratory function associated with dietary nitrate supplementation
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909870/
Whole Beetroot Consumption Acutely Improves Running Performance
http://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(11)01948-4/fulltext
Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances exercise performance in peripheral arterial disease.
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/21454745
Acute effect of a high nitrate diet on brain perfusion in older adults.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20951824
