A surprising number of people have heard about the health benefits of beets. These benefits include their ability to lower cholesterol, aid in weight loss, improve cardiovascular health, and reduce the chance of developing prostate cancer. Beets are packed with helpful nutrients, such as iron, calcium, folate, potassium, and dietary fiber. However, they can also cause some surprising side effects, especially if you’re a woman.
Health Benefits of Beets As a Supplement: One of the most interesting health benefits of beets is that they actually have the ability to help you lose weight, even though they tend to contain a lot of calories. Beets suppress your appetite and so make you eat less. They are a great source of fiber and folate, two of the minerals essential for good nutrition. And while they may be high in calories, half a cup of beets will have only 45 calories, compared to a comparable cup of red meat.
One intriguing side effect of beet juice is that it has been shown to be able to reverse the inflammatory process that is at work inside the body when you have heart disease. In other words, the way that inflammation occurs in your body may be protecting your heart. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that men who drank a large amount of red wine had lower incidences of heart disease, while women who consumed more but did not drink red saw no protective benefit. The study showed that the beneficial antioxidants in red wine were preventing damage to the arteries. It also suggested that the anti-inflammatory properties of beets could reduce the activity of a molecule called NF-kappaB.
Health Benefits of Beets as a Dietary Fiber: Besides helping to protect against inflammation and reducing the risk of developing heart disease, another one of the health benefits of beets is their high fiber content. Unlike most dietary fiber, this one is not broken down during digestion, instead of staying in the system and acting as a laxative. This is believed to help increase the number of good bacteria in the digestive tract. By increasing the number of good bacteria in the system, bad bacteria are discouraged from forming. In addition to this, some studies have shown that people with poor intestinal health have had lower counts of good bacteria.
Health Benefits of Beets As a Colon Cleanse: When you add beets to your diet, you can clean up the colon by removing built-up matter, toxins and mucus. Also, beets contain a number of key nutrients that are important to cleansing the colon. Among them are iron, magnesium, calcium, and folate. Many of these are already recommended as dietary fiber, but you might not get enough of these in your diet due to the relatively low levels of these nutrients in most greens.
Beets also contain a number of vitamins and minerals which are important for a healthy gastrointestinal tract. The two most important vitamins to look for in beets, however, are vitamin A and vitamin C. Vitamin A is used for vision and hearing, while vitamin C helps to repair cell damage. Adding beets to your diet can help you meet the daily requirements of these two vitamins through their high fiber content and complex carbohydrates.
Health Benefits of Beets As a Natural Remedy For Headaches: Another of the health benefits of beets is that they are an excellent natural remedy for headaches. Specifically, beets contain potassium, magnesium, and iron, which are all considered to lower blood pressure. Potassium is known to fight both hypertension and migraine headaches. Magnesium and iron are both beneficial in lowering blood pressure and are both featured in a number of in-depth nutritional profiles on the blog.
Health Benefits of Beets: Finally, one of the most important aspects of the Beets Nutrition Foundation site is that the beets listed as a root are the only edible part of the plant. Therefore, beets are the only thing you need to eat in order to receive the full benefits of the nutrient. The other parts of the plant are considered by the foundation to be supplemental. The benefits of these pigments are that they offer good color for juices, ice creams, sauces, and candies, as well as being an excellent source of beta-carotene, which is essential in supporting strong bones and eyesight. Beta-carotene also plays a role in the immune system and is essential to proper cancer treatments.