Kidneys are essential to our health. The foods we eat and the liquids we drink play a key role in helping the kidneys perform their duties correctly. So, is beet juice bad for your kidneys?
Beet contains a high level of potassium, sodium, phosphorus, minerals, and other components that can damage kidneys. The part of the beet plant that most negatively affects us is the beetroot, the taproot portion of the beet plant. In North America, we refer to the beetroot as a beet. In British English, it’s referred to as a beetroot.
Either way, the beetroot or beet juice contains high levels of oxalate. If you drink a lot of this juice can severely negatively affect your kidney. It can increase the chance of kidney stones, especially if you already have problems with your kidneys.
How does that happen? When you eat a beet with oxalate, it combines with calcium. If the concentration reaches a certain high level, your kidneys will have trouble getting rid of it promptly. When the kidneys can’t get rid of the stuff, it crystallizes and forms kidney stones. Consuming foods like beetroot juice that’s high in oxalate puts you at a higher risk of having kidney stones.
If you want to drink vegetable juice, it’s best to avoid beetroot juice. It takes more beets to make a single glass of juice, different from other fruits and vegetables.
To avoid drinking large amounts of oxalate and putting your health at risk, avoid or limit the amount of beet juice you drink. Also, be sure to check if other beet juices have beetroot juice inside. If you still want to drink beet juice, try boiling it. This is used to help dilute the oxalate concentration in the beet by a significant amount.
Beet Juice Powder: Is It an Alternative?
Beetroot powder and capsules are convenient, easy ways to consume beets. However, if you wonder if pills, powder, or juice are better, the answer is simple: natural juice is far superior. It contains a greater variety of nutrients, including more phenolic compounds and nitric oxide. Powders lose many nutrients during manufacturing.
A study published in the Journal of Food Science and Biotechnology shows that beetroot juice has five times the amount of nitric oxide compared to beet powders or a whole beetroot. So, if you are looking for an option that has more health benefits, the juice is the way to go!
Nutrients provided by beets are good for your health. Nitric oxide is considered one of those vital health benefits from the beet. This helps improve your cardiovascular function, causes a reduction in blood pressure, and improves athletic performance.
If you consider taking beet powder or other supplements, please consult your doctor or healthcare provider.
The Benefits of Beet Juice
Even though beetroot juice can negatively affect your kidneys when consumed in excess, it still has positive health benefits. These include:
- Lower blood pressure
- Improves exercise stamina
- Improves music power in people with heart failure
- It may help slow down signs of dementia
- Can help maintain a healthy weight
- It may help prevent cancer
- Great source of potassium
- Is a great source of other minerals
- Contains folate (It’s a B vitamin that can help prevent neural tube defects)
- Can help support the liver
- May reduce cholesterol
There are a plethora of health benefits from this simple vegetable. Not only does it have all of these nutrients and benefits, but it also contains:
- Iron
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Sodium
- Zinc
- Copper
- Selenium
Beats are healthy and have nutrients for you no matter how you prepare them. But, beet juice is the best way that has the most health benefits. If you don’t like the taste, you can add apples, carrots, mint, or citrus to the juice to help. Find more recipes for beet juice here.
When You Could Drink Beet Juice to Lower Blood Pressure
Researchers have repeatedly found that drinking beet juice every day can help lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Nitrates are the cause. They are compounds inside the beetroot juice that become nitric oxide when it hits the blood. It reportedly helps widen and relax blood vessels.
So, when is the best time to drink it to get the best results? A study found that people who drank beetroot juice had blood pressures that dropped one hour after volunteers drank the juice. It reached its lowest point around two a half to three hours after the juice was drunk.
The juice continued to be effective in the beet juice drinkers for up to 24 hours. This differed from the people in the study who only drank water. In other studies, only one cup lowered blood pressure.
If you want to lower your blood pressure with beet juice, contact your doctor before starting.
How Long Does It Take for Beetroot Juice to Work?
Compared to other vegetables, beets are pretty fast-acting! Within two to three hours, you can start to see positive results from drinking beet juice. That impact can last up to around 24 hours after consumption.
It can improve blood circulation, reduce high blood pressure, improve digestive tracts and detoxify the body. Drinking it every day can not only be positive in the short term but is also effective long-term.
Beet Juice on Roads: A Surprising Use for Beet Juice
Not only does beet juice have positive benefits for your body, but it also can help with the roads we drive on. Crazy, right? But it’s true!
When salt is used to melt and remove ice from frozen roads during the winter, it can linger for a while. The salt is used as a de-icer to lower the freezing point of frozen water and so it melts. This causes a chain reaction.
However, salt isn’t the only molecule capable of melting ice during the cold winter months. Sugar molecules from beet juice can cause a similar reaction. Road maintenance workers have found that mixing beet sugar to the deicing process helps with waste reduction, bonds the salt with the road surface, and is more effective.
