Beetroot juice 'can tame blood pressure'
A daily glass of beetroot juice can help to beat high blood pressure, scientists have claimed.
They found that drinking 500 millilitres of the juice led to significant reductions in blood pressure within hours.
The effect was traced to nitrate in the vegetable which reacted with bacteria in the mouth. This led to chemical changes which resulted in blood vessels dilating to increase blood flow.
Other vegetables also contain high nitrate levels, especially green leafy varieties.
Fourteen healthy volunteers were recruited for the study and asked to drink either 500 millilitres of beetroot juice or the same quantity of water within 30 minutes.
Their blood pressure was measured every 15 minutes from one hour before taking the drink to three hours afterwards.
Thereafter readings were taken every hour for six hours. A final test was conducted 24 hours after the drink was consumed.
Volunteers who drank the juice started to show reductions in blood pressure after just one hour.
After two and a half hours, their systolic rate - the pressure with each heartbeat - was around 10 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) lower than that of participants who had drunk water.
For the diastolic reading - the "resting" pressure between heartbeats - a reduction of 8 mm Hg was seen in the juice drinkers after three hours.
At 24 hours, systolic BP was still more than 4 mm Hg lower for volunteers given the beetroot, while there were no differences for diastolic BP.
The study's leader, Prof Amrita Ahluwalia, from the William Harvey Research Institute at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, said: "Drinking beetroot juice, or consuming other nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system."
"Mayo Clinic explains how nitrate works in the beet juice. It is converted by bacteria living on the tongue into the chemical nitrite. Once it enters the stomach, it becomes nitric oxide or in other words, it re-enters the blood stream as nitrite.
The researchers in the new study, have found that blood pressure was at its lowest when the nitrite levels in the blood were at their highest.
The nitrites then work by protecting against endothelial dysfunction, which means that blood vessels have trouble expanding or contracting to handle changes in blood flow. They also have anti-platelet properties."
We've always put an emphasis on promoting the fact that our juices contain so many nitrate rich vegetables! But I wanted to make sure that before we continue discussing nitrates and the effect they have on the body, you had an idea of exactly what nitrates are and what they do!
According to health expert Paul Johnson, "Nitrate is a salt of nitric acid, and is an essential plant nutrient found in soil that is taken in by plants and used as their primary nitrogen source. Thus,nitrate is a natural part of all vegetables, fruits and cereals."
He also goes on to discuss the effect of nitrates on hypertension: "How can nitrates help with hypertension? New studies have found that nitrates, nutrients found in leafy green vegetables such as lettuce and spinach, may actually help control blood pressure by maintaining the health of blood vessels."
Conveniently enough, he finishes his article by promoting a few vegetables that are very high in nitrates, including:
According to health expert Paul Johnson, "Nitrate is a salt of nitric acid, and is an essential plant nutrient found in soil that is taken in by plants and used as their primary nitrogen source. Thus,nitrate is a natural part of all vegetables, fruits and cereals."
He also goes on to discuss the effect of nitrates on hypertension: "How can nitrates help with hypertension? New studies have found that nitrates, nutrients found in leafy green vegetables such as lettuce and spinach, may actually help control blood pressure by maintaining the health of blood vessels."
Conveniently enough, he finishes his article by promoting a few vegetables that are very high in nitrates, including:
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Cabbage
- Beets
- Radishes
- Carrots