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Do beets have side effects?

Side effects of eating too many beets at once include gas, gut discomfort, and red urine or stool. Taking too high a dose of a beet supplement can cause lowered blood pressure – watch out, if you already have low blood pressure.

resyncproducts.com - The Good & The Not-So-Good Truth About Beets: Benefits & Side Effects

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Why Are Beets Good For You

Beets are an immensely powerful bioactive. The first documented use of beets in Germany and Italy was for medicinal purposes in the middle ages1 You'll see from this list of benefits that beets still hold the title of a therapeutic plant today. Although many of the benefits are thanks to the heart-healthy nitrates they provide, the other components of beets also contribute to their health effects. Here are just a few of the benefits of beets supported by research:

•Makes cardio exercise easier by decreasing your "ventilatory threshold"2

•Support recovery thanks to improved oxygenation and nutrient delivery4

•Sharpen cognition due to better brain oxygenation5

•Improve energy because of more efficient mitochondria6

•Increase dietary fiber, which fosters a healthy microbiome and promotes metabolism

•Improve immune power, meaning fewer and shorter cold symptoms7

Beetroot is truly a superfood, but if you want the health benefits seen in research, you have to make sure you're getting the right amounts at the right time. Of course, that's most easily accomplished with a supplement, but again not all supplements are created equal! supplements are created equal!

How Beets Work

Like other nitrate-rich veggies, beets increase nitrate levels in our saliva, which gets converted into nitrates then into nitrites by oral bacteria. Once in your bloodstream and other tissues, those nitrites are converted to nitric oxide, the principal beneficial effect of consuming beets. Beets boost nitric oxide by providing nitrates. Unlike L-arginine or citrulline amino acids, the amount of nitric oxide you get from plant-based nitrates doesn't have a cap — one reason why plant-based nitrates outperform arginine in head-to-head studies8. Being a critically important molecule, having healthy nitric oxide levels is essential for the health of many of your bodily systems.

Beets for Brain Function

Oxygenation is critical for brain function, and that's one thing that higher levels of nitric oxide do for your brain. Brain scan studies show that when you supplement with nitrates, they appear to increase the blood flow to areas of your brain9 that control decision-making and executive function. When combined with exercise, the benefits may be even more significant; Howard University research shows that nitrates seem to increase blood flow in your entire brain.10

Beets to Support Immune Function

Your immune cells harness nitric oxide to deliver a targeted burst of damaging inflammation to fend off pathogens11. Your immune system's stopping power is due in part to nitric oxide. In fact, clinical research12 has even shown the positive effects of a nitrate supplement on immune function. For example, supplementing with beet juice was shown to reduce the severity of a typical cold by 26%. In addition, study subjects with baseline low nitric oxide due to asthma saw an even greater benefit!

Beets for Daily Energy

Nitric oxide's primary function is to open up blood vessels to allow for greater blood flow. That's a huge advantage in athletics — it essentially lets you do more with less oxygen.13 That extra blood flow could also help your daily energy levels as well. Additionally, the benefits of nitrates for your mitochondrial efficiency — your ability to turn calories into work — is another energy-enhancing benefit of beets. Having a better functioning immune system and better cognitive function certainly doesn't hurt your daily energy either!

Possible Side Effects Of Beets

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Why do I pee after I poop?

When you do pass stool however, the relaxation of the stronger anal sphincter also decreases tension in the weaker urinary sphincter, allowing urine to pass at the same time.

sciencefocus.com - Why can you pee without pooing, but you can't poo without peeing?

The passage of our bodily waste is controlled by circular muscles called sphincters. The external sphincters are under our control. The sphincter around the urethra is smaller than the one around the anus, so when you decide to urinate you can relax it without relaxing the whole pelvic floor. This means you can pass urine without needing to pass stool at the same time. When you do pass stool however, the relaxation of the stronger anal sphincter also decreases tension in the weaker urinary sphincter, allowing urine to pass at the same time. But this isn’t always the case – it is possible, but difficult, to do one without doing the other.

Asked by: Kate Selby, Dundee

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