Beetroot juice benefits have long been the subject of health studies aiming to discern the positive effects that the nitrates and antioxidants found in the red, bulbous root vegetable could have on blood flow throughout the body.
And now a new study reveals that drinking one glass, eight ounces, of beetroot juice a day may lower blood pressure by 7 percent.
Researchers attribute this positive effect to high concentrations of nitrate---also found in celery, cabbage and leafy green vegetables like spinach---that is found naturally in beetroot.
The type of juice used in the study had about 0.2g of dietary nitrate, but researchers said that they were stunned to learn how a little amount of the compound goes a long way.
"We were surprised by how little nitrate was needed to see such a large effect," said Amrita Ahluwalia, the study's lead author and professor of vascular pharmacology at The Barts and The London Medical School.
"Our hope is that increasing one's intake of vegetables with a high dietary nitrate content, such as green leafy vegetables or beetroot, might be a lifestyle approach that once could easily employ to improve cardiovascular health."
The new study included analyzing data from eight women and seven men with systolic blood pressure measured between 140 and 159 mm Hg and who were not taking any kind of blood pressure medication.
Participants were asked to drink 250ml, or about one cup, of beetroot juice or water that contained low amounts of nitrate and their blood pressure was monitored for a 24-hour period.
The people who drank the beetroot juice demonstrated a drop of 10 mm Hg in their systolic pressure as compared to the participants who just drank water.
And while the effect was seen at its highest point six hours following consumption of the beetroot juice, it was still evident even 24 hours later.