LONDON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Drinking 500 ml, or 15 fluid ounces, of beetroot juice a day can significantly reduce blood pressure, researchers in Britain found.
Amrita Ahluwalia of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Ben Benjamin of Peninsula Medical School said the ingestion of dietary nitrate contained within beetroot juice -- and green, leafy vegetables -- results in decreased blood pressure.
Previously the protective effects of vegetable-rich diets had been attributed to their antioxidant vitamin content, Ahluwalia said.
The study, published in the journal Hypertension, found that in healthy volunteers, blood pressure was reduced within just one hour of ingesting beetroot juice, with a peak drop occurring three to four hours after ingestion -- with some reduction lasting up to 24 hours after ingestion.
Researchers showed that the blood pressure decrease was due to the chemical formation of nitrite from the dietary nitrate in the juice.
"Our research suggests that drinking beetroot juice, or consuming other nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system," Ahluwalia said in a statement.
