Watermelon, Beet & Lime Circulation Smoothie
Watermelon and beet blended with lime and mint into a bright pink drink with a one-track mind: blood flow, exactly where you want it.
Why it works
Watermelon and beet come at the same target from opposite ends. Watermelon is the best common food source of citrulline, an amino acid your kidneys convert to arginine, the raw material for nitric oxide. Beet supplies nitrate, which becomes nitric oxide by a completely different route, courtesy of bacteria living on your tongue. Nitric oxide tells the smooth muscle in blood vessel walls to relax, the exact signal erectile-dysfunction drugs work by prolonging. Food doesn't work like a drug, so keep the expectations sized right. The trials on citrulline show modest improvement in mild cases and better blood flow during exercise, not a pharmaceutical result.
Citrulline has small randomized trials behind it: modest benefit in mild erectile dysfunction, stronger support for exercise blood flow. Dietary nitrate is well backed for vascular function generally. Neither one plays in the same league as a prescription drug.
Ingredients
- 350 g cubed watermelon, frozen
- 100 g cooked beet, cooled and chopped
- 120 ml water or coconut water
- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 8 to 10 fresh mint leaves
- 1 tbsp (12 g) chia seeds
Method
- Pour the liquid into the blender first, then add the soft ingredients, then anything frozen or hard on top. Blending in that order keeps the blades in liquid instead of spinning against a frozen block.
- Use the white rind closest to the flesh if you are cutting a whole melon. It carries more citrulline than the red part and disappears completely into the blend.
- Blend on low until it breaks up, then on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until no flecks remain and the texture is even.
- Taste and adjust: a splash more liquid if it is too thick to pour, a squeeze of citrus if it tastes flat, a few more ice cubes if you want it colder.
- Drink it soon after blending. The texture separates within about ten minutes, and the colour dulls as the cut surfaces oxidise.
