Many people dislike the hand stain caused by red beets. But have you tried golden beets? Besides not staining your hands, you should take advantage of the many health benefits of golden beets starting today.
Golden beets are rich in dietary fiber, contain anti-inflammatory properties, lower blood pressure, and boost liver health. Apart from fiber, gold beets contain other nutrients: protein, potassium, iron, vitamin C, calories, carbs, sodium, and fat.
Also, golden beets have a sweet flavor. Hence, they’re great for juicing, or you can eat them raw.
Below, I’ll take you through all the benefits of the gold beets.
Let’s get started.
Health Benefits of Golden Beets
You may be familiar with red beets’ taste and nutritional benefits if you have eaten them. Golden beets have the same nutritional value as red beets. They’re rich in vitamins and antioxidants.
However, golden beets have a unique color. The color difference is attributed to betalains.
There are two types of betalains, namely:
- Betacyanins
- Betaxanthins
While the golden beets contain the betaxanthins, the red ones contain the betacyanins.
Beta-carotene is a nutrient that gives you the many health benefits of cara cara oranges. Similarly, the yellow color makes golden beetroots rich in beta-carotene. Other nutrients in these beets include potassium, vitamin A, and flavonoids.
Let’s discuss further below.
Lowers Blood Pressure
Golden beets, just like other beets, lower high blood pressure. This also means your heart health improves just by eating golden beets!
If you take golden beet juice, you may lower diastolic and systolic blood pressure levels significantly.
However, studies show there are more effects on systolic blood pressure when you drink beet juice than diastolic blood pressure levels.
Diastolic blood pressure refers to your pressure when your heart is relaxed. In contrast, the systolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart contracts.
Since gold beets are rich in potassium, eating them flushes sodium out of your body through urine. So, when the effects of sodium in your body lowers, blood pressure levels drop.
Besides, beets have a high nitrate content. So, when you eat this root vegetable, the nitrates get converted into nitric oxide. This molecule lowers blood pressure levels and dilates blood vessels.
Golden beets are rich in folate, a plus for hypertension patients.
According to The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), folate lowers high blood pressure levels in women.
Boosts Liver Health
Gold beets are rich in betalain. Betalain is good for your liver as it protects it from diseases and boosts the functioning of liver cells. Betalain is an amino acid and a methyl donor that naturally detoxifies the liver.
For improved digestion, fresh golden beets aid in the thinning of bile. Your liver is responsible for making and releasing bile to aid in digestion. Hence, inadequate bile results in poor digestion and liver detoxification.
Contains Anti-Inflammatory Properties
Betalains pigments found in beets also help fight inflammation in the body. Besides liver diseases, chronic inflammation is also responsible for obesity, cancer, and heart disease.
A study done in 2014 involving osteoarthritis patients revealed that when beetroot extract was used to make betalain capsules, patients experienced low discomfort and pain.
After a study, 24 people whose high blood pressure was normal recorded reduced markers of inflammation, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) and C-reactive protein (CRP) after taking 8.5 ounces of beet juice for 14 days.
Further clinical studies done on rats revealed that after the rats had been injected with an injury-causing chemical, which was toxic, kidney inflammation reduced after taking beet juice.
However, these results are not human-based. So, always contact your doctor before taking whole fresh beet or juice.
Aids in Digestion
Beets are great for digestion as they contain fiber. When fiber gets to the colon, it feeds the friendly gut bacteria. Besides, it adds bulk to your stool.
Therefore, since one cup of golden beetroot has about 3.4 grams of fiber, it boosts your digestive system health and prevents problems such as constipation, diverticulitis, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBS).
When you have enough fiber, you’re also at a lower risk of developing diseases such as type two diabetes, colon cancer, and heart disease, among other chronic ailments.
Rich in Essential Nutrients
The health benefits of golden beets are hidden in their nutrients. Aside from the beta carotene and fiber I already discussed, gold beets contain iron, magnesium, vitamins B6, fat, vitamin C, folate, copper, calories, carbs, and manganese.
Aids in Weight Loss
Golden beets are great for weight loss due to their high water content and low calories and fat. High water intake keeps you full, thereby eliminating hunger problems.
Hence, you can spend the entire day without craving junk food, especially away from home.
This root vegetable contains fiber, both soluble and insoluble. The soluble fiber helps suppress your appetite, and you crave less. Less craving aids in weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight because you don’t eat many calories.
Boosts Athletic Performance
Besides having blood pressure-lowering properties, the dietary nitrates in golden and red beets boost exercise performance.
According to a study, nitrates boost the effectiveness of mitochondria, which helps produce energy in the body cells.
Further, research shows that taking beetroot juice could enhance your cycling performance and boost cardiorespiratory and oxygen use by about 20 percent, improving general athletic performance.
Are Golden Beets as Healthy as Red?
The health benefits of beets are the same despite the variety you eat. The only difference is the presence of betalains. In other words, golden beetroots contain the same nutritional benefits as the red varieties.
If anything, the only other noticeable difference is that gold beets do not stain your hands; red beets do, which is why most people dislike them.
What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Beets Every Day?
Eating beets daily improves your health and lowers your risk of developing chronic diseases. Take, for example, the potassium found in golden yellow beets; it boosts your muscles and bones’ health. Hence, reduces the risk of fractures and other bone and muscle-related issues.
Like other bright-colored fruits and vegetables, beets lower the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and dementia, among other world’s killer diseases.
Besides eating beets daily, eat their leafy greens as they contain beta-carotene, which is later converted into vitamin A (retinol). You need vitamin A to boost your immune system and improve vision and eye health.
Vitamin A is also great for improved mucous membranes and skin health.
Therefore, when you eat golden beets daily, your health improves; hence, your body efficiently fights minor and significant health issues.
What Is the Best Way to Eat Golden Beets for Health Benefits?
The best way to eat golden beets for health benefits is to juice or eat them raw! However, there are many other ways of eating beets.
For example, you can cook, steam, pickle, or juice beets! Notice that steamed, pickled, and steamed beets lose some nutrients.
The more you cook this vegetable, the more nutrients you lose. One of the nutrients lost when you cook beets is betalains, which your body desperately needs!
Therefore, if you must cook your beets, please steam them.
Let’s discuss the best ways to eat beets below.
Raw
To reap all the health benefits of golden beets, eat them raw. Unlike red beets, which have an earthy flavor, golden beets are more mellow in intensity and sweeter. Hence, they’re great for salads.
Or, you can simply have them as a side dish.
Since they’re hard to chew when raw, thinly slice or grate them. Fresh beets are the best when eaten raw; their vibrant color makes you want to have them in every dish!
Juice
Beetroot juice is excellent for a hot summer afternoon. To ensure you get all the health benefits of golden beets, juice the beet greens, too.
Based on what you use to extract the juice, you could lose or retain the fiber when juicing this delicious vegetable.
Conclusion
The primary health benefits of golden beets include boosting weight loss and athletic performance, lowering blood pressure, improving liver health, providing the body with vital nutrients, and boosting digestive health.
These yellow beets also contain anti-inflammatory properties.
However, if you have calcium oxalate kidney stones or your family line has a history of the same, be cautious when taking whole golden beets or juice.
Always contact your doctor before taking beets, even if you’re healthy.
