Do you often include beetroot in your diet? If your answer is ‘no’ then you need to start eating them because of their unlimited health benefits. This vegetable acts as a natural coloring agent to meals and has vitamins, organic compounds such as glycine, carotenoids, lutein, magnesium, iron, copper, phosphorus and minerals as their nutritional content.
Beetroot has one of the highest sugar content counts when it comes to vegetables. They are useful in the production of refined sugar and have no cholesterol with a very low level of calories. Beetroot health benefits range from regulating your blood sugar level to enhancing your sexual stamina. It also acts as a known antidote to anaemic patients and can be consumed in whole form or juiced.
Below are the health reasons why you should include beetroot in your diet;
Lowers Blood Pressure
Beetroot acts as a regulator to your blood level because of its content of nitrates that expands your arteries and lowers blood pressure in your body. The nitrate in beetroot converts to nitrites when consumed. It gives out a gas known as nitric oxides, which performs the magic of regulation in your blood pressure levels. This is just a natural way of relieving yourself from your high blood pressure issues by eating five hundred grams of beetroot daily.
Antioxidant Properties
Beetroot contains betacyanin that is a soluble fibre. This soluble fibre is responsible for the purple-red coloration that beetroot has and it equally acts as an antioxidant that prevents the deposit of cholesterol on the walls of the artery. All these protect your heart from future stroke and heart attacks, which can only be possible if you make beetroot your preferred diet. Betacyanin contained in beetroot also aids in the prevention of tumor growth and cancerous diseases, be it breast or prostate cancer. It also helps you as a cancer survivor to stay cancer-free for a long time.
Benefits for Pregnant Women
Beetroot is vital for pregnant women and unborn children. It contains folic acid, which is needed in abundance by pregnant women for proper formation of the spinal cord of their unborn children. Folic acid will prevent the occurrence of spina bifida (a congenital disorder that prompts the division of the spinal cord from its base into two, due to inappropriate formation of the spinal cord caused by lack of folic acid in the mother’s system) in unborn children. Folic acid gives you an added energy boost as a mum-to-be.
Helps Diabetic Sweet Cravings
Beetroot being a glycemic index vegetable means that it can serve as a solution to the sweet cravings diabetic patients encounter even with the smallest amount added to their diet. It has the ability of releasing sugars slowly into the blood stream, thereby helping to regulate sugar in the body of a diabetic patient. Beetroot is also known to be fat-free which makes it a vital vegetable for diabetics with its low-level content of calories.
Iron Content
Beetroot contains iron that helps in the formation of haemagglutinin (a part of blood) which helps in the transportation of oxygen and nutrients to other parts of the body. It is very helpful in the treatment of anaemia because of its iron content. The nitrate content of beetroot helps in the oxygen uptake by the body, thereby enhancing proper functioning of your brain.
Healthy Gut
Beetroot will act as a great laxative owing to its high soluble fibre content. It will help to regularize your bowel movement by softening your stool. Due to the fibre content it can help to keep waste moving through your small and large intestines at a healthy pace.
Beetroot contains large amounts of potassium and magnesium. These nutrients are essential to maintaining the health of your digestive tract lining and the smooth muscle fibres that create the waves of contractions that produce bowel movements.
Sexual Health
Yes, you can also last longer during sexual intercourse if you eat beetroot. This is why it is normally referred to as a natural Viagra. Beetroot helps you by boosting your sexual health owing to the fact that beets have the ability to open up the blood vessels and allow more oxygen flow to boost blood being pumped in your entire organs, including your penis.
With so many numerous health benefits of beetroot, start today by eating beetroot and incorporating them to your diet!