In last months issue, I showed you how beets can lower your high blood pressure. But theres so much more the lowly beet can do to protect your health. Heres how it can prevent colon cancer, stop angina, lower cholesterol, and more.
I explained last month how beets produce nitric oxide (NO) in your body. It starts when the beet delivers nitrites to your stomach. Amazingly, nitrites from plants have powerful bacteria-killing activity. Its so powerful, it can kill the deadly Yersina and Salmonella organisms. That means eating beets can protect you from intestinal bacterial diseases and even travelers diarrhea. For instance, it could have protected many of the victims of the peanut butter/salmonella outbreak earlier this year.
This process also creates higher steady levels of nitric oxide in your gut. This can help your bowel function and general body wide microcirculation.
But that is not all. Do you have angina? Many people with angina use drugs like nitroglycerine (NTG) and Isordil. You might know nitroglycerine as an explosive. But in tiny doses, it helps dilate blood vessels by delivering nitrates. Thereby, it can quickly abort an angina attack. Its nitrate gets converted to NO similarly to what Ive described with beets, but the beet actually works faster than the drug. Beets could be an absolutely fantastic, safe, and 100% tolerated substitute to this micro-dose explosive treatment.
Here are some more beet wonders. Its purple pigment is betacyanin. You know that the colors in veggies are powerful and beneficial plant phytochemicals. This particular one can reduce your risk of colon cancer.
In animal studies, beet fiber stimulated rodent livers to make two key detoxification enzymes: glutathione peroxidase and glutathione-S-transferase. The first is an all-important protector of unwanted free-radical damage. The latter is crucial for detoxing chemicals. Many cancer patients have genetically low levels of either or both. Inducing activity with beets may be a fabulous way to protect against cancer. Other animal studies have shown that beet fiber increases special colon immune CD8 cells. These detect and eliminate abnormal cells. Beets may be a good addition to your diet if you are at risk for colon cancer!
But that is not all. Beets can lower your cholesterol as well. In one of the liver-enzyme animal studies above, beets not only increased those enzymes, but dramatically improved lipids. Total cholesterol dropped 30%. Triglycerides dropped 40%. And HDL (beneficial cholesterol) levels increased significantly.
So if you are not eating beets regularly, you are missing out on one of the best health foods God created. Its wonderful for your entire body.