The broader, the better.

Some males feel that way about women's backsides. I do not. I do, however, feel that way about this column.Though I won't shy away from subject matter that applies solely to senior citizens or little leaguers or middle-aged moms, I would rather write about topics that pertain to all.Though I won't avoid a subject just because I haven't personally experienced it, I prefer including that along with the results of studies and observations by experts as a way to widen the scope.With the broader-is-better belief as my benchmark, something chameleon-like happens when I research red beets.The bulbous root vegetable, which is eaten boiled, roasted, or raw, and often used as an ingredient in salads, turns golden.That's because senior citizens, little leaguers, middle-aged moms, and any other group you'd like to add to the list all benefit from regularly eating red beets.Red beets contain significant amounts of a naturally occurring compound called nitrate. Through the early stages of digestion, your body changes nitrate into nitric oxide.Nitric oxide widens blood vessels, increasing blood flow while reducing blood pressure. While the increased blood flow makes it easier for your muscle cells to produce energy, nitric acid itself reduces the amount of oxygen needed by the muscles during activity.This one-two combination aids every living body.A study published in 2010 in the Journal of Applied Physiology, for instance, found that subjects given red beet juice used less oxygen while walking, effectively reducing the effort by 12 percent.Research performed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and published in Circulation: Heart Failure in 2015 took subjects who had already experienced heart failure and found that two hours after drinking red beet juice the power in the studied leg muscles increased 13 percent.In an article for Medical News Today about the 2015 study, Andrew R. Coggan, PhD, assistant professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said that the result of drinking of red beet juice was like Popeye eating spinach and that the increase in strength it produced in the subjects is similar to the increase in strength heart failure patients normally make after two or three months of weightlifting.Considering that and how many older people - including some with healthy hearts - struggle to climb stairs and get out of chairs, consuming two or three cans of red beets a week - along with the juice, obviously - might just make daily living a great deal easier for the typical senior citizen. And for others who do any type of exercise - teenagers playing school sports, middle-aged moms looking to stay toned, dads doing triathlons - it's not a matter of "might."It's a sealed deal. That the nitric acid in red beets increases endurance has been demonstrated time and time again.Recently, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers gave 19 subjects a dose of red beet juice every day for a week. At the conclusion, aerobic endurance measured by cycling to exhaustion at less than maximum pace on a stationary bicycle increased 24 percent.Prior to that, research performed at the University of Exeter in England and published in 2009 by the Journal of Applied Physiology also using red beet juice and stationary bikes found a 2 percent reduction time in covering a set distance, a significant improvement considering hundred-mile bike races are often won by seconds. Moreover, the subjects rode 16 percent longer after using red beet juice rather than the placebo.Studies like these have created the general consensus that regular does of dietary nitrate lowers the oxygen cost produced by exercise and enhances endurance performance by at least 15 percent, which has caused researchers to search for other red beet juice benefits.Follow-up research performed at the University of Exeter found red beet juice increased the speed of decision-making ability without a decrease in accuracy. Norwegian and Swedish researchers determined that mountain climbers more easily acclimate to high altitudes with red beet juice supplementation.Finally, a study published in 2010 in the journal Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry found that drinking red beet juice improved blood flow in the brains of older adults. Decreased blood flow in the brain has been linked to an increased incidence in dementia.While most of the research done on nitrates has used the juice of red beets, many other vegetables contain high concentrations of it, giving red beet haters other options. Arugula, for instance, possesses 172 percent more nitrate per ounce than red beets.Although none of the other concentrations eclipse the red beet's, many leafy greens used in salads contain significant amounts of nitrate, most notably butter leaf lettuce, spring mix, Swiss chard, and oak leaf, and mustard greens.Rhubarb contains nearly the amount of nitrate as red beets. Vegetables with noteworthy amounts include book choy, carrots, spinach, eggplant, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and onions.