Heart beets

| 2 June 2008
minute reading time

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables reduce blood pressure and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. But we are not sure why… New research from Barts and the London School of Medicine suggests compounds called nitrates found in green leafy vegetables may be responsible. This work showed that drinking 500ml of beetroot juice a day lowered blood pressure within an hour, the effect lasted for up to 24 hours. More than a quarter of the world’s adults have high blood pressure and it is estimated that this figure will increase to nearly a third by 2025. Consuming nitrate-rich vegetables could be a simple way to protect heart health.

Webb AJ, Patel N, Loukogeorgakis S, Okorie M, Aboud Z, Misra S, Rashid R, Miall P, Deanfield J, Benjamin N, Macallister R, Hobbs AJ, Ahluwalia A. 2008. Acute Blood Pressure Lowering, Vasoprotective, and Antiplatelet Properties of Dietary Nitrate via Bioconversion to Nitrite. Hypertension. 51 (3) 784-790.

About the author
Dr. Justine Butler
I joined Viva! as a health campaigner in 2005 after graduating from Bristol University with a PhD in molecular biology. My scientific training helped me research and write numerous reports, guides and fact sheets for Viva! including Meat the Truth, Fish-Free for Life, One in Nine (breast cancer and diet) and the substantial report on the detrimental health effects of consuming dairy; White Lies. This accompanied Viva!’s report The Dark Side of Dairy which spelt out the inherent cruelty of dairy farming. We were the first UK group to take on the dairy industry in this way, and many of our supporters go vegan after reading these reports.

View author page | View staff profile

You might also like...

Scroll up