About one cup of juice a day is the dose used in most blood-pressure trials.
Red urine after eating beets is harmless and has its own name: beeturia.
The leaves are food too, and they are better eating than the root for minerals.
Beetroot is a dense source of dietary nitrate. Your body turns that nitrate into nitric oxide, and nitric oxide relaxes the lining of the blood vessels so blood moves more easily. That is the whole story behind the blood-pressure and endurance research, and it's unusually well tested for a vegetable. In Iran the root has a second life as labu, sold hot from a steaming pot on winter street corners.
Known to botanists as Beta vulgaris.
Chapter 2 of 15
Why It Matters
Most foods sold for circulation have thin evidence behind them. Beetroot doesn't. Trials in adults with raised blood pressure have measured real drops after daily juice, and cyclists and runners have used the same dose to squeeze more work out of the same oxygen. It is cheap, it keeps for weeks, and Persians already eat it.
Blood vessels stiffen with age and the body makes less nitric oxide of its own, which is part of why blood pressure creeps up after sixty. Dietary nitrate is one of the few dietary levers that acts on exactly that mechanism. Some small studies also show better blood flow to the frontal lobe in older adults after beet juice, though that work is early.
Betaine, the compound that gives beets their name, helps the liver process fat.
A cooked beet carries about 3 g of fibre, which is why the old texts reached for it when the gut was slow.
Chapter 3 of 15
Traditional Persian Perspective
Persian temperament: Warm & Moist (1st degree). Opening and loosening. Hakims used it to move a stiff gut and to clear obstruction in the liver, and considered it nourishing for the depleted.
Persian medicine reads choghondar as warm and moist, a root that opens obstructions in the liver and spleen and loosens a stiff gut. Hakims used the boiled root for constipation and the juice of the leaves for the head and sinuses. The sweetness was understood as nourishing, which is why it was given to people recovering from long illness.
Juice from the leaves was dropped into the nose for a blocked head.
The cooked root was fed to people convalescing after fever, for its sweetness and easy digestion.
Chapter 4 of 15
In Persian Life
Labu — whole beets steamed until they collapse and sold hot in paper — is a Tehran winter institution, eaten standing up on the way home in the cold. It belongs to the same street-food family as boiled turnip and roasted beetroot, and it's one of the few sweet things in Iranian food that needs no sugar. The seller keeps the pot on a low flame all evening and ladles the syrup that collects at the bottom over each portion. At home the same root turns up shredded into salad-e choghondar with yogurt and garlic, and in winter soups where it stains the broth a colour nobody expects.
Chapter 5 of 15
What It Contains
Primary compounds
Dietary nitrate is the active part. Gut bacteria reduce it to nitrite, and the body then makes nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels.
Betalains (the deep red pigments in beetroot) are the pigments that stain everything they touch, and in laboratory work they behave as antioxidants.
Betaine supports the liver's handling of fat and of homocysteine.
Chapter 6 of 15
What It Contains: Other Constituents
Folate matters most in pregnancy, and a cup of cooked beet covers a useful share of the day's need.
Vitamins
Vitamin C
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Potassium, Manganese, Iron (in the leaves) · Fiber: About 3 g per cooked cup
Chapter 7 of 15
What Studies in People Show
Strong evidence
A month of daily beetroot juice lowered systolic blood pressure by around 8 mmHg in adults with untreated hypertension, and the effect disappeared within two weeks of stopping.Strong evidence
Moderate evidence
Trained cyclists given beetroot juice before a time trial produced more power for the same oxygen cost, with gains in the range of one to three per cent.Moderate evidence
Early research
Older adults drinking a high-nitrate diet including beetroot juice showed more blood flow to the frontal lobe of the brain on scanning.Emerging evidence
Beetroot juice modestly reduced muscle soreness and improved recovery in the days after hard exercise.Emerging evidence
Chapter 8 of 15
Preparation and Kitchen Use
Drink about 250 mL of juice two to three hours before hard exercise.
In the kitchen: a raw grated salad with lemon and walnut. A juice pressed with apple or carrot to soften the earth flavour. A borani stirred through thick yogurt with garlic.
Roast whole beets in their skins at 200°C until a knife slides in, then rub the skins off under cold water.
Sauté the leaves like chard, with garlic and olive oil.
Chapter 9 of 15
What It Goes With
Pairing:
Feta
Salt cuts the sugar in a roasted beet, which is why the pairing turns up in every mezze in the region.
Pairing:
Walnuts
Bitterness and fat against sweetness and earth. Toast them first.
Fruit:
Lemon
Acid brightens the flat, earthy note that puts people off raw beetroot.
Chapter 10 of 15
Who Should Be Careful
General caution:
Beets are high in oxalate. Anyone who has formed calcium-oxalate kidney stones should keep to modest portions of the cooked root and leave the daily juice habit alone, since juice concentrates the oxalate along with everything else.
General caution:
Your urine and stool may turn red for a day or two after a decent portion. This is beeturia, it's harmless, and the only real danger is the fright it gives someone who was never warned it could happen.
General caution:
The juice is concentrated sugar with the fibre taken out. If blood sugar is a concern, eat the whole root instead and save juice for the days you actually train.
Chapter 11 of 15
Medicines and Interactions
Medication interaction:
Blood pressure medication — Daily beet juice can lower pressure further. Tell your prescriber before making it a habit. (moderate concern)
Medication interaction:
Nitrate medicines for angina (isosorbide, nitroglycerin) — Concentrated beet juice may add to their blood-pressure effect. Ordinary portions of cooked beet are fine. (moderate concern)
Medication interaction:
Sildenafil and similar erection medicines — Combined with concentrated beet juice, these may cause a sharp blood-pressure drop. Check with your clinician. (high concern)
Chapter 12 of 15
Medicines and Interactions: More Interactions to Know
General caution:
Iron supplements — Beetroot doesn't block iron tablets or replace them. Keep taking prescribed iron as directed. (low concern)
Medication interaction:
Lithium — No direct food interaction is established. Ask your prescriber before starting daily concentrated beet juice. (low concern)
Chapter 13 of 15
Pregnancy, Children and Older Adults
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Pregnancy and breastfeeding:
Beetroot is a good pregnancy food. It is one of the better natural sources of folate, and the fibre helps with the constipation that comes with the territory. Cooked root and cooked leaves are both fine; there's no reason to drink concentrated juice daily while pregnant.
Children
Children:
Children usually like labu because it's sweet and they can hold it. Warn them about the red urine before it happens rather than after. Roasted wedges with a little salt work better than raw grated beet, which most children find too earthy.
Older adults
Medication interaction:
This is the group with the most to gain, since nitric oxide production falls with age and blood pressure tends to rise. A cooked beet several times a week is a reasonable habit. Check with a clinician before starting daily juice if blood pressure medication is already in play.
Chapter 14 of 15
Through the Year
Spring:
Spring
Young beets with their leaves still on. Cook the greens the same evening; they wilt fast.
Summer:
Summer
Grate raw and dress with lemon. Roasting a hot oven in July is nobody's idea of dinner.
Autumn:
Autumn
Main crop season. Buy them firm and store them cold and unwashed.
Winter:
Winter
Labu season. Whole beets simmered until soft, eaten hot in the street or at the kitchen table.
Chapter 15 of 15
Questions People Ask
How much beet juice for blood pressure?
Trials generally use about one cup, 250 mL, a day. The effect builds over one to four weeks and fades within a couple of days of stopping.
Why has my urine turned red?
That is beeturia, and it happens to roughly one person in seven. The pigment passes straight through. It isn't blood and it needs no attention.
Is juice better than eating the root?
Depends what you're after. Pressing removes the pulp, which concentrates the nitrate into a small glass you can drink in one go. Chewing the whole vegetable keeps the pulp, so the sugar arrives slowly and you stay full. Most people are better off chewing.
