If you’ve been out to health food restaurants, your gym’s smoothie bar, or juice cafes in the last few years, you may have wondered: What’s up with adding beets to all these juices and smoothies?
The answer is that beetroot is packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants while being very low in calories.
If that’s not enough healthiness for you, though, beetroot also contains an ingredient that may be the key to their increasing popularity: nitric oxide, a vasodilator associated with major health benefits.
You don’t have to stuff yourself with beets to reap the benefits, though. Read on to learn about the five health benefits of beetroot powder and how to easily add it to your routine.
- Cardiovascular Support
As mentioned, beetroot contains nitric oxide. This molecule is known to dilate your blood vessels and improve blood flow. Improving your blood flow lowers your blood pressure, reducing strain on your heart.
Studies have found that this effect endures for up to six hours after consumption, meaning that if you get a lot of nitric oxides, you can create durable cardiovascular benefits.
- Brain Power
The stimulation of blood flow enacted by beetroot impacts the whole body, including the brain. Studies have found that this particularly affects the frontal lobes, the parts of the brain tasked with higher-level thinking, like decision-making and problem-solving.
Increased blood flow to the brain also helps prevent the slow buildup of plaques that lead to cognitive decline. This means that it can help prevent the development of dementia and other age-related cognitive issues.
- Athletic Improvements
As you might imagine, improved blood flow has a number of positive effects on exercise performance.
With more blood reaching your muscles, your endurance increases. This means that you can work out harder for longer before tiring.
It also promotes weight loss by making your muscle systems function more efficiently and decreases your recovery time by providing your muscles with more of what they need after exercise.
- Anti-Inflammatory Qualities
The pigment in beetroot, betalain, has anti-inflammatory properties. This can have positive effects on digestion, weight loss, aches and pains, and fatigue, among other issues.
- Anti-Cancer Properties
Recent studies have found that the combination of compounds in beetroot (including antioxidants and betalain) may help prevent certain types of cancer. It is too early to make definitive claims, but findings have been promising.
Getting Your Fill
Beetroot is an exceptionally healthy veggie, but you can only eat so much of it before you’ll get sick of it. On top of this, some of the most potent effects come at concentrations of nutrients that are difficult to get simply eating the vegetable.
Beetroot powder capsules are a great option for reaping the health benefits of beetroot without gorging yourself on beets. View more information on beetroot supplements.
Health Benefits of Beetroot Powder
Beetroot is chock full of healthy compounds, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and especially nitric oxide. Including them in your diet is great, but adding supplements is a great way to reap the health benefits of beetroot powder.
Be sure to check out the Diets & Nutrition section of the blog for more information on supplements that will do wonders for your health and fitness.