Beet kvass looks like something a folk healer would give you and a cardiologist would approve of. It's sour beet water with Lactobacillus in it. The betalains that make beets purple are in there in a bioavailable form your liver and your heart both want.
Beet kvass is tier 2 — not yet in mainstream Black American food culture, but growing in natural health communities. Beets themselves are affordable ($2-3 per bunch) and have cultural resonance in Black Southern cooking (pickled beets were standard on Southern tables). Beet kvass is the ancestral probiotic evolution of the pickled beet tradition.
Beet kvass delivers dietary nitrates in a fermented, bioavailable matrix — salivary bacteria convert dietary nitrate to nitrite, which is then reduced to nitric oxide (NO) in the bloodstream. Nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator — a single cup of beet kvass (200-300mg dietary nitrate) has demonstrated blood pressure reductions of 4-10 mmHg systolic in clinical trials (Webb et al., 2008, Hypertension). For Black Americans, who have the highest rate of hypertension of any demographic group and often have reduced endothelial NO production — beet nitrate supplementation is a direct mechanistic intervention. The fermentation also increases betalain bioavailability by breaking down cell wall matrix and increasing solubilization. Lactobacillus fermentation of beet sugars produces betaine, which serves as a methyl donor for homocysteine metabolism — reducing cardiovascular risk at the epigenetic level.
Cube 2-3 medium organic beets (do not peel — skin carries the wild fermentation cultures). Place in a quart glass jar, add 1 teaspoon non-iodized salt, fill with filtered water to cover beets. Option: add 1-2 tablespoons whey or previous kvass batch as starter. Cover with cloth, ferment at room temperature 2-4 days until slightly sour and bubbly. Refrigerate, consume liquid (not the beets, though beets can be eaten). Refill with water once (a second batch from same beets).
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