Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure by changing oral microbiome: study (news.exeter.ac.uk)

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Back in school I was often told the lead pipes in Roman aqueducts likely played a key role in the fall of Roman. We know lead is a poison with negative long term effects on cognition.

The aqueducts were also responsible for Romes ability to proliferate and grow. Lead was both a blessing and a curse.

I wonder what future generations will say about our highly enriched and processed diets. Calories have never been cheaper and food is ubiquitous. However I believe our food is playing a huge role in our degraded health.

It’s not surprising that most studies looking at the consumption of unprocessed food, fresh fruit and vegetables show benefits to our health.

The challenge is how do we get this food in the hands of those who need it cheaply and without sacrificing the nutritional (and microbial) content.

I can't remember where (maybe here) that you shouldn't use mouthwash after working out because of the effects on your oral microbiome. That fact shocked me just like this article does because it was unintuitive that your oral microbiome could have such an impact on your physiology.

The effect may actually be a similar one because nitrates do sound familiar...

That's interesting. I had always assumed that the effect was due to vasodilation but perhaps not.

Isn't nitrates what makes processed meats so unhealthy? Does this mean the bacon that claims to be cured with celery juice is actually on to something?

If you have trouble in bed, ask yourself if you use Listerine. It kills your mouth’s microbiome and lowers your Nitric Oxide production [0].

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31709856/

Comfortable and uninterrupted sleeping, eating mostly plants, and getting your heart rate up and muscles moving for half an hour per day.

Anything else is going from 90% healthy to 99%.

I think this is also one of the latest "marginal gains" advantages the cycling pro peloton is making use of. After races you can see them all chug a 150-200ml bottle of beetroot juice as a recovery drink while making the afferent faces. :D

Some time ago I read the book Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition by Anita Bean, which does also emphasize on not using antibacterial mouthwash since it removes the beneficial bacteria in the mouth which convert nitrate to nitrite.

I‘m drinking beetroot juice since 3 years now and asked myself if beetroot capsules might be an alternative.

Cooked or raw?

For those who don't like beets, I eat beet regularly by dropping a few chunks in a fruit smoothie. Makes it nice and pink and the earthy flavor is much diluted.

Is there a material difference between drinking beetroot juice and just eating a mess of beets?

One of the problems with beetroot though is that it is loaded with sugar.

I wonder if they could test this by comparing blood pressures of older folks in Australia with those in other countries since I hear they really like beetroot there :)

I started consuming Beet Chews recently. I'm not convinced of it though.

I think it's just one of those things where I see a YouTube video and go to Amazon to add a new supplement to my life. Then once the supply of the supplement is up I choose not to re-up on it. That's what I'm planning for the Beet Chews too.

I wonder really how much it really lowers BP and what quantity to consume?

The linked article doesn't specify how much was consumed? A single cup? A liter? Likewise I'm just consuming 2 Beet Chews per day per the suggested serving size. But who knows if that really is the "minimum effective dose". There is value to the placebo effect of course, I'm taking something in order to convince myself I'm healthier.

Beetroot juice is legal “doping”.

Of course nothing illegal, only natural, a disadvantage if you don’t utilize it for you.

There are beetroot parties at almost any Triathlon event for the runners, apnea divers also get a huge natural and healthy boost.

I use it for long runs I don’t really feel the difference every time, but stats and data speak their own language.

Give it a try, timing is a bit tricky depending on your feast.

But caution: don’t overdo it due to oxalate as potential risk.

And mustn’t be the juice, the beetroot itself already does the job.

Well no if it changed it then you wouldn't need to keep drinking it for the same effect

It's the nitrates which have a short half-life

And the thing is high quality Beet juice is very expensive because it has to be grown in good soil with lots of nitrates, most of the stuff coming out of China is poor quality with just the name and people don't know any better

Wouldn't this stain teeth over time?

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I drink kvass, a fermented beetroot drink and it has helped reduce abdominal pain that i occasionally get below my right rib after eating certain foods.