Drinks
For each one: how to use it, the best version, how to prepare it, what it does, and where it goes wrong.
Lacto-fermented beetroot juiceNitrate from beetroot becomes nitric oxide in your body, and that opens your blood vessels. The only drink on this page with a measured drop in blood pressure behind it.Read on
How to use it
A small glass a day, ideally at a fixed moment. If you use it before exercise, drink it a couple of hours ahead.
The best version
Lacto-fermented and unpasteurised, with no added sugar and no concentrate. The label should say beetroot and as little else as possible.
How to prepare it
Keep it cold and do not heat it. Skip antibacterial mouthwash on the days you drink it: the bacteria on your tongue are what convert the nitrate, and without that step nothing happens.
What it does
In people with high blood pressure it has been measured. Seven randomised trials with 218 participants between them gave daily beetroot juice, and systolic pressure fell by an average of 4.95 mmHg. Diastolic pressure did not move.
Watch out
Those trials used ordinary beetroot juice rather than the fermented kind, so the lactic acid was not part of what was measured. What was measured is the nitrate, and that is in both.
Your urine and your stool can turn red. That is the pigment from the beetroot and not blood, but it is a fright if nobody told you.