In addition to boosting endurance, there are other major health benefits beet roots provide your body.  Here are the 4 key reasons you should include beets in your diet:

1. Boosts Endurance

It is becoming more common for athletes to use beet juice to boost their stamina and enhance their performance.  Doctors found that endurance can be increased by as much as 16% when beet juice was consumed right before the workout.

2. Reduces Inflammation

Beets are a great source of antioxidants, and higher antioxidant consumption can help to reduce oxidation in the body.  Oxidation is a natural process that produces free radicals as a byproduct.  The problem with free radicals is that they are very unstable can cause serious damage to your cells… if they aren’t properly managed.  When free radicals get out of control it does enough damage to your body to produce inflammation. Inflammation is the underlying cause of many serious health problems.  This is why potent antioxidants, such as beets can help to neutralize free radicals and prevent inflammation.

3. Lowers Blood Pressure

Studies have found that beet juice can help reduce blood pressure levels.  Beet juice has a very fast response on blood pressure, and it can make a difference within a period of a few hours.  Beets are a great source of natural nitrates, which convert to nitric acid when they are consumed.  Nitric oxide is beneficial to improve blood flow and relax the blood vessels, helping to reduce blood pressure.

4. Prevents Cancer

As mentioned earlier, free radicals cause damage to the cells because of it’s unstable structure.  There are evidences that indicate that extensive cellular damage can lead to cancerous cells.  Therefore consuming beets high in antioxidants can help mitigate cell damage caused by free radicals, which in turn may help prevent cancer.

How To Eat Beets

If you want to get the most health benefits from beets, make sure you eat real beets!  Stay away from canned beets.  The canning process kills the enzymes and decreases the nutrition.  Make sure not to over cook the beets either, raw beets are best nutrition wise… and if you don’t like raw beets you can lightly steam them.

Even though most people usually eat just the root of the beet plant, don’t discard the greens! There are many health benefits from beet greens, and they contain vitamins and minerals that are very good for your health.

Here are some of the health benefits from beet greens:

• Promotes strong bones, helping to prevent osteoporosis

• Enhances brain health, reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease

• Boosts immune system by stimulating the production of white blood cells and antibodies

Beet juice is another great way to consume beets.  It’s highly concentrated with the many vitamins and minerals that are available within the plant.  Another option is to add a piece of raw beet to your high speed blender when you are making a smoothie.

Give beets a try before your next workout and see how you feel.  Even though most of the studies were done on endurance sports, it’s just as effective before a short high intensity workout.  Beets are a great source of nitrates which gets converted to nitrite and eventually to nitric oxide which helps boost muscle performance.  I would recommend beet juice for best results since it gets digested and absorbed the quickest.  Approximately 300 ml (1 and 1/3 cups) of beet juice and hour or two before your workout.