Are beets good for you?

Improves endurance — how long and hard you can exercise.

The root of Beta vulgaris, eaten raw, cooked, roasted, or juiced.

Beets were originally cultivated mainly for their leafy tops; the swollen root we eat today was selectively bred over centuries, mostly in the Mediterranean and Near East.

Their deep red color comes from betalains, a group of pigments distinct from the anthocyanins that color most other red and purple foods.

Well-studied, cheap, and easy — a rare combination in nutrition.

For anyone managing blood pressure or wanting to support exercise performance, beets offer a simple, food-based option with solid trial evidence behind it.

Their versatility — raw, roasted, juiced — makes them easy to fit into very different kinds of diets.

Persian and Slavic traditions used beets in soups and salads for blood, digestion, and energy.

Ancient Greeks offered beets to the god Apollo at Delphi and used both the root and leaves medicinally, while Roman writers recommended beets for digestive and blood-related complaints.

The beet-based soups of Persian, Caucasian, and Slavic kitchens (borscht and its many regional cousins) reflect a shared, centuries-old reliance on this humble root through the cold months.

Where tradition and science agree

• Both traditional and modern use treat beets as a food worth eating often rather than a special-occasion remedy, echoed by modern research using daily or near-daily intake in its strongest trials.
• Both value beets specifically for supporting blood and circulation, though tradition described this in general terms while modern trials can now measure it precisely as blood pressure and blood-vessel function.

In this season (autumn): Beets are a classic autumn and winter root vegetable in Persian, Slavic, and Central Asian traditions, harvested as the weather cools and lasting well in storage through winter.

• Historically, beet greens and leaves were often the more prized part of the plant, used medicinally by ancient Greeks and Romans; modern research has focused almost entirely on the root and its nitrate content, leaving the leafy-green tradition less studied.
• Traditional use rarely distinguishes cooked from raw or juiced beets; modern nitrate research finds juicing concentrates the dose most efficiently, so the blood-pressure evidence is strongest for juice, with roasted or grated beets likely offering a gentler version of the same effect.

• Roast it, grate it raw into salads, or drink 250 mL of juice daily.
• Pair with olive oil and lemon.

One small step today: Add roasted or grated beets to today's salad.

Beets are quiet workers — deep color, deep effect.