Brain Boosting Beet Juice

When it comes to brain boosting nutrition, blueberries now have some series competittion. For the first time, researchers have shown that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults a finding that could hold potential for combating the progression of dementia.
There have been several very high profile studies showing that drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, but we also wanted to show that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, or blood flow to the brain says Daniel Kim Shapiro director of Wake Forrest University's Translational Science Center's initiatives for fostering Independence in aging. There are areas of the brain that become poorly perfused as we age and that's believed to be associated with dementia and poor cognition.
Beet juice, the researchers explain, contains high concentrations of nitrates. When we eat nitrate rich foods such as beets, celery, cabbage, and spinach, good bacteria in the mouth turn nitrates, which help open up blood vessels in the body, increasing blood flow and oxygen to the brain.