Beet High Blood Pressure

 

 

You probably have heard that a diet rich in vegetables can support heart health and some researchers now believe it is the nitrates naturally found in all vegetables, but especially rich in beets and leafy vegetables, that are responsible for the heart healthy benefits of vegetables.  Dietary nitrates are converted to nitric oxide in the body which dilates blood vessels and lowers blood pressure.  Nitric oxide provides many other health benefits too in addition to improved blood flow; including enhanced exercise performance, reduced stickiness of platelets, improved cholesterol metabolism, and improved calcium metabolism which helps reduce calcium deposits that contribute to the formation of atherosclerosis or narrowing of your blood vessels.

Beets also contain antioxidants; the polyphenols quercetin and resveratrol; and folate (vitamin B-9) and betaine, substances which reduce free radical damage and inflammation.  Many studies on hypertension have found that drinking 16 ounces of beetroot juice could lower both the systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure anywhere from 4-10 points starting just two and a half hours after ingestion. These effects were maintained as long as one continued to consume beet juice with the peak effect seen after 12 days.

Fortunately, if one does not like beets, many other vegetables are rich in nitrates too.   And while “nitrate levels in vegetables and vegetable juices can vary considerably, depending on many factors, including the environment (humidity, temperature, sunlight exposure, water available to growing plants), agricultural (use of herbicides and nitrogen-based fertilizers) and genetic factors of the plant,” leafy greens in general are a rich source of nitrates.  At the top of this list are vegetables such as celery, lettuce, spinach, arugula, Chinese cabbage, endive, fennel, kohlrabi, leeks and parsley.   (2015, Nutrition Dimension, “Beetroot juice &”  Pg 20-25, ContinuingEducation.com.)