Beet juice has now been shown to improve blood flow to the brain in older adults, due partly to its high concentration of nitrates.

When high-nitrate foods are consumed, bacteria in a person’s mouth turn nitrates into nitrites. Nitrites then help blood vessels open up, which promotes perfusion, or blood flow. Blood flow to the brain is important for older adults since research shows that as one ages, lack of perfusion to certain areas of the brain is linked to problems such as cognition and dementia.

Researchers at Wake Forest University’s Translational Science Center studied a group of 14 older adults who consumed a high-nitrate diet for four days. MRI scans showed that after consuming the high-nitrate diet, blood flow to the white matter of the frontal lobes increased in these patients. This area of the brain is linked to the kind of degeneration associated with dementia and cognitive problems, Medical News Today reported. Results of this study will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry.