 Hi guys, welcome to another episode of sugar MD today. We are talking about beats Are beats good for diabetes? I get this question frequently and I'll talk about that today I am Dr. Ahmet Ergin. I'm an undocumented and a diabetes education specialist and let's talk about beats Okay guys, so Beats are nice and tasty not everybody likes them, but actually they are like a medicinal food They do not necessarily help your diabetes per se, but it helps a lot of other things and I'll tell you what they are But let's talk about diabetes part first now one cup of raw beats are around 13 gram of carbs and They have good amount of fiber So you end up with around nine grams of net carbs, which is not bad, right? So it's low in calories There's a great addition to your salad some people even drink beet juice But what is really important about beats is it is very good for your blood pressure a Significant blood pressure drop has been seen with the beats and beet juice Now the beaches may have more Carbohydrates in it so you have to be careful about how much you consume But it is very high in folate and B vitamins and very high in antioxidants Now one of the antioxidants is alpha lipoic acid Which has been shown to reduce the nerve damage in patients with diabetes So it helps your blood pressure reduction and it helps with the nerve damage. Now. How does it do that? There are nitrates which are a derivative of nitric oxide or it leads to the creation of nitric oxide and Nitric oxide is a primary molecule that dilates your blood vessels and most of us as we get older and Due to a variety of other diseases such as diabetes and insulin resistance our blood vessels get stiffer and stiffer and We need some sort of dilator so that the elasticity in your blood vessels remain better More like healthier and nitric oxide is one of the things that really help you to achieve that As we get older nitric oxide production goes down these are problems like insulin resistance It goes down, but the beats and beet juice really helps to Regenerate that nitric oxide that you need in order to create that elasticity in your arteries up to 8 to 10 Millimeter mercury drop in your blood pressure is achievable When you incorporate the beats in your diet as I said, it's not very high in carbs And it's a great addition to help control your blood pressure. Also If you continuously use it it because of the alfalfa acid content in it It will definitely help prevent the nerve damage as well. Again, I like beats in my salad most of the time And I think if you haven't tried it try that you will like that as well Also because of the nitric oxide content people who are into exercise Which you all should be into the exercise at this point, right? If you have diabetes and watching this channel But if you are having the problem of getting tired easily and your exercise capacity is not great Try beats beats will help you to improve your exercise capacity as well because when you exercise Your muscles need that blood flow And if your blood vessels like we discussed is not opening up, then you will have the fatigue So try that. I think your exercise capacity will improve as well guys And if you are having any questions if you have more questions, don't hesitate to write in the comment section Give a thumbs up and share this video We appreciate you guys and we'll see you in the next video