Discover how beetroot and its bioactive compounds and natural nitrates can be the solution to circulatory problems. In addition to its vibrant, purple color, it hides a lot of natural antioxidants, which are extremely powerful and bring benefits from physical activity to your memory. I am Dr Alexandre Amato, vascular surgeon at Instituto Amato, and I help people with circulatory problems to understand their problem and improve their quality of life.
I studied for hours on end and collected a bunch of scientific articles, read them all, to be able to filter and bring you the best evidence about beetroot in your vascular health. This way, you won't need to watch a lot of videos on the internet or read a lot of things without knowing what is true and what is not. So stay here with me until the end of the video, and I'll give you a gift, a free e-book, with several recipes for you to be able to use beets in a way that is beneficial for your health.
But as it has a huge effect on circulation, I don't want anyone to use it. These are really powerful recipes and I don't want anyone who doesn't study or doesn't know anything about the subject to end up spreading this information around. So I'm going to put a code for you to download this e-book here in the video.
So I have to say, beetroot is a super food, full of bioactive compounds and antioxidants. But not only that, even the beet leaf, it is very rich in manganese. So it has several nutritional substances, including folate.
Folate is very important in regulating homocysteine, which is responsible for several cardiovascular problems, including atherosclerosis. But the way it is presented here in beetroot is the way our intestines can make the most of it. And it is also very important in the formation of glutathione, which is a natural antioxidant that we produce.
Obviously, the entire vitamin B12, B6 cycle needs to be functioning correctly, without genetic alterations that can prevent this from functioning. But it does have this super useful substance for our vascular health. On the other hand, it is very rich in carbohydrates, sugar, and has a lot of calories.
So when we're talking about beets or adding beets to our diet, it's not adding beets, it's substituting something else for the beets. Because if you add everything that is healthy food, you will eat a gigantic dish with a lot of calories and it won't be good for you. It also contains a lot of rutin, which is an antioxidant widely used in vascular and venous diseases.
In fact, this is a really cool topic, if you're interested, comment below and I'll make a video about the routine. Because it can even control or help reduce bad cholesterol. Beets also have a lot of natural nitrate.
Nitrate in itself is not a good thing, but the natural nitrate in beetroot works in the following way, when ingested, when it enters the mouth, digestion begins by the bacteria that are there on our tongue and the conversion of nitrate begins. in nitrite. Then, when it reaches the digestive tract, some of it may have already become nitric oxide, but this nitric oxide is a very powerful vasodilator and I talk about it here on the channel several times, because nitric oxide is exactly the substance necessary to protect the endothelium, which is that first layer of cells inside the vessels.
And this layer of cells is responsible for regulating our circulation. If it is working well, it will vasodilate and it will contract, regulating blood pressure and also protecting it from atherosclerotic events, such as the deposition of calcium plaques and atheroma. But because it is a vasodilator, it has been widely used in sports, because it will increase when you vasodilate, it increases the caliber of a vessel, it ends up being able to pass more blood, passing more blood, passing more red blood cells, passing more red blood cells, carrying oxygen, It is able to oxygenate more tissues, including muscles.
And precisely because of this vasodilating effect, more oxygen reaches the blood, increasing the effectiveness of exercise. physical. But not only that, it can also improve sexual activity, it can improve erection.
Therefore, this endothelium is fundamental in regulating vascular tone and any dysfunction of this endothelium will lead to serious cardiovascular diseases in the future. Beets also have a lot of beta-alanine and beta-alanine is capable of reducing NK-beta and interleukin 6. Interleukin 6 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine.
So if it reduces interleukin 6, it will reduce inflammation, but that's not all. It increases interleukin 10 and interleukin 10 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine. So it improves our body's defense against inflammation and it reduces the production of inflammation in our body.
It also has several other antioxidants, some that act on the skin. So for those who want to have healthier skin, more beautiful skin, look younger for longer, they need antioxidants. There's no way.
And beetroot has plenty of these necessary antioxidants and will also help fight free radicals such as, for example, superoxide, which is like cell pollution. It's that thing that causes our entire system to rust. In this way, beets can help the brain, improving cognition, improving memory, improving the ability to acquire new information.
But it won't just be in the brain. It can help the heart with all these cardiovascular events, helping to protect the vascular endothelium, reducing the risk of cardiovascular events. There is work showing that consuming two beets a day was even able to lower blood pressure.
Now beetroot is so effective in this vascular regulation, in this vasodilation, that it has shown to increase speed in runners by 5%. So you can imagine that high-performance athletes love beets because it will give them a 5% improvement in the results they are looking for. It reduces the need for oxygen, you will need to do more exercise to reach that pain of muscle exhaustion.
Having this effect on physical exercise, I'm sure the first question is how to use it? Or rather, when to use it? The ideal is 2 to 3 hours before physical activity.
There are also studies showing its effectiveness in preventing macular degeneration and ophthalmological problems. Now the flavor of beetroot is very peculiar, not everyone adapts to it, not everyone likes beetroot juice. All the nutrients will be there, but you have to know that in some ways of preparation you won't take advantage of all these antioxidants.
So if you boil the beetroot, all the red water that comes out will be richer in antioxidants than the beetroot itself. So it's better to consume it in the oven, for example, or even raw. And if you boil it, don't throw away that red water, because that red water is super rich in nutrients.
All the nitrates in the beet will end up leaving it and going into this water. So if you are going to buy beetroot, be careful not to buy pre-cooked beetroot, because they will give you a bunch without nitrates, without the necessary nutrients. And the suggested amount is around 2 to 3 beets per day, or the equivalent of beetroot juice.
And using this daily, you will have a medium and long-term benefit for your circulation. Now, you can use it as a pre-workout to increase your performance. So I'll put a link below in the description for you to download a free complete ebook with recipes so you can use beets beneficially for your health without losing these nutrients.
If you liked our video, subscribe to our channel, click the bell to receive notifications and stay tuned for the next one.
