Heart Beet Smoothie
Did you hear about the guy who didn’t eat his vegetables?
His heart missed a beet.
Beets are really good for your heart, thus the name of this smoothie. It’s pure fruits and vegetables, just sweet enough, and bursting with antioxidants and phytonutrients. Not to mention it’s really beautiful. Let’s turn up the beet! (Vegetable puns, haha. You can’t beet ’em! Ok, I’ll stop.)
If you’re training for an athletic event or just want to have an easier time exercising, beets are on your side! Here is an interesting snippet from Dr. Michael Greger’s book How Not to Die:
“Nitrates, concentrated in green, leafy vegetables and beets, not only help deliver oxygenated blood to your muscles by helping dilate your arteries, but also enable your body to extract more energy from that oxygen—something never before thought possible. For example, one little shot of beet juice has been found to allow free divers to hold their breath for a half minute longer than usual. After sipping beet juice, cyclists were able to perform at the same level of intensity while consuming 19 percent less oxygen than the placebo group. Then, when they ramped up their bike resistance for an intense bout of what they called “severe cycling,” the time to exhaustion was extended from 9:43 minutes to 11:15 minutes.
“The beet-juice-drinking group exhibited greater endurance while using less oxygen. In short, the beet juice made the bikers’ bodies’ energy production significantly more efficient. No drug, steroid, supplement, or intervention had ever before been shown to do what beet juice could do.
“This effect works with whole beets, too. In another study men and women eating one and a half cups of baked beets seventy-five minutes before running a 5K race improved their running performance while maintaining the same heart rate and even reported less exertion. Faster time with less effort? Them’s some block-rockin’ beets!
“To maximize athletic performance, the ideal dose and timing appears to be a half cup of beet juice (or three 3-inch beets, or a cup of cooked spinach) two to three hours before a competition.
“It seems sports news programs are always talking about steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Why hasn’t anyone mentioned these mighty and perfectly legit performance-enhancing vegetables? Beets me.” (That’s his pun, not mine!)
–Dr. Greger
How Not to Die
Don’t beet yourself up by huffing and puffing unnecessarily during your next 5k. Beetrue to yourself and make this smoothie! (Ok, I’m really done now!)
If you like smoothies, don’t miss my Orange Carrot Ginger Smoothie, and my Cruciferous Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie. And here is also how I make my daily green smoothie.
Dance to the beet....of this yummy, vibrant smoothie.
- 1 beet
- 1 carrot
- 1 apple
- 1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup frozen mango (or peaches, cherries, pineapple, banana...whatever frozen fruit you have)
- 2 cups water
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Peel beet and carrot, cut into chunks. Slice and core apple.
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Blend all together and enjoy!
What an easy way to eat a beet! I have to eat a beet or two a day to lower my elevated blood pressure. I have been slicing and roasting them, which is a time-consuming process. Now that I know I can consume a whole beet in my morning smoothie, I am elated! Not to mention, I’m also eating a carrot, an apple, strawberries, and mango in that same smoothie. All so supportive of my immune system. And it tastes good!
What kind of blender? Beets and carrots are pretty hard. I’m guessing you have to steam first; then blend.
I’ve actually heard that most blenders are fine for these hard vegetables! I do have an old Bendtec, and I put the whole vegetables in and they are pureed great in 30 seconds. If it doesn’t work, steaming them first is a great idea.
My husband is a huge beet lover so I bought the ingredients to make this mostly for his benefit but to my surprise my 2 year old also loved this smoothie!
Awesome! It’s so satisfying when the little ones love the healthy stuff.
I have been consuming about 2 oz of beet juice daily but I haven’t tried any whole beets in a smoothie. I do plan to try some of these recipes in the future.
We found beets at a farmer’s market and thought that I can finally make this smoothie! My KitchenAid blender did great with both the carrot and beet, I sliced then chopped them first. All my kids liked it which is ALWAYS a win.