Read the label on a bottle of beet root capsules, and you might see promises of improved athletic performance, blood pressure, and function of your digestive and immune systems. But can a couple grams of the pink powder do all that? The answer is a resounding “Ehh ..
. maybe.” If you really want to get the full health benefits of beets, “Don’t waste your money on supplements or special juices.
Just eat beets,” says Cydney McQueen, PharmD, a clinical professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy and an expert on dietary supplements. Here’s what the research says about this super nutritious root vegetable. Beets are a rich source of antioxidants.
Antioxidants neutralize free radicals. Both are molecules that circulate in the body. Think of antioxidants as the good guys and free radicals as the bad guys.
Free radicals are produced by certain body functions, like metabolism, and also by exposure to harmful things in the world around us, like cigarette smoke, pollution, and radiation. They latch onto healthy cells and damage them in a process called oxidative stress. Over time, this cumulative stress contributes to the signs of aging and to risk for numerous chronic diseases of aging, including cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Antioxidants, which come from healthy foods, especially bright red, orange, purple and blue ones, latch onto free radicals and prevent them from wreaking havoc on healthy cells. But beets aren’t just any run-of-.
