05/15/2024
❤️❤️🫐Looking after our heart health has never been more important than in our midlife years. While women and their Doctors are focused on only HRT for menopause, I’m focusing the women in my lifestyle programmes and the Practitioners who join me on my lifestyle science for menopause courses, on the incredible role of betalains in beetroot (beets) for cardiovascular health.
Our vascular (blood vessel) health depends on optimal endothelial function (the inside of your blood vessels) and during and after menopause, arterial stiffness, and the presence of atherosclerotic plaques may increase with the decline in oestrogen. This is when HRT may be helpful but some cardiac studies in post-menopausal women suggest otherwise.
This is where purple foods come in, especially beetroot which contains a compound called betalain. These are known to improve cardiac and blood vessel health, including having anti-inflammatory effects.
In a 2021 a paper from Massey University here in New Zealand 🇳🇿, exploring the effects of beetroot, blackcurrants and juices of these foods on health, found that both beetroot and blackcurrants are rich in dietary nitrates, which play a pivotal role in regulating blood vessel tone, reducing blood pressure and improving glucose and fat metabolism. [Haswell et al, 2021] The same benefits that hormone medications are purported to achieve too. For women not able to take HRT, please take note. 👏🏻
Beetroot contains micronutrients in varying abundance, depending on the soil and its exposure to light (the less light exposure the better when storing beetroot). 100gms of beetroot contains good quantities of thiamine (Vit. B1), riboflavin (Vit. B2), folate (Vit. B9) and iron.
Rocket, radish, beets and celery, are some of the foods most abundant in nitrate. Adding any of these foods to your diet, along with purple berries, means that you will be doing your heart health a favour. Especially those of you with busy lifestyles and stress-filled days.
My old juicer is cracked and leaks, but these days it’s the most important appliance in my kitchen. 😊
Dr Wendy Sweet (PhD)