Top 5 Common Food Sources of Betalains
Looking to get more betalains in your diet? Look no further! My team and I have crunched the numbers and did all the math to determine the top 5 common food sources of this phytonutrient, per serving. Getting enough betalains as part of a healthy balanced diet is important since a large collection of studies show that getting nutrients from dietary supplements or multivitamins doesn’t improve health outcomes compared to getting nutrients from foods!
| Rank | Food | Nutrivore Score | Serving Size (Raw) | Betalains (mg/serving) | % Recommended Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beets | 2013 | 1 cup | 245.7 | 983 |
| 2 | Prickly Pears | 881 | 1 cup | 90.6 | 362 |
| 3 | Dragon Fruit, Red Flesh | 800 | 1 cup | 32.2 | 129 |
| 4 | Chard, Average1 | 6386 | 2 cups | 3.3 | 13 |
| 5 | Amaranth Grain | 207 | 1/4 cup | 0.3 | 1 |
Want to know more about betalain pigments including what betalains do in the body, how much of these natural pigments we need, and even more foods with high betalain content? Keep reading to learn all there is to know!
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What Are Betalains and What Do They Do?
Betalains are a class of water-soluble red to yellow pigments found in certain plants. There are about 80 well-characterized betalains, which can be divided into two subclasses: betacyanins (red to violet, including betanin, isobetanin, probetanin, and neobetanin) and betaxanthins (yellow to orange, including vulgaxanthin, miraxanthin, portulaxanthin, and indicaxanthin). Other red and purple foods get their color from anthocyanins, a type of polyphenol, and even though they appear to have similar if not identical functions, you never find anthocyanins and betalains in the same plant!
Betalains demonstrate a variety of health-promoting biological activities. Among the best-studied benefits of betalains are cardioprotective, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic and antioxidant properties. There is also emerging evidence of benefit to neurodegenerative diseases. Learn more about betalains here.
How Much Betalains Do We Need?
Currently there are no official guidelines for betalain intake requirements but we have set a recommended target of 25 mg for adults based on Team Nutrivore’s review of the scientific literature, established with the aim of providing improvements for overall health and reduction in chronic disease risk.
Nutrient Daily Values
Nutrition requirements and recommended nutrient intake for infants, children, adolescents, adults, mature adults, and pregnant and lactating individuals.
More Food Sources of Betalains
Betalains are not particularly common and are primarily found in plants from the Caryophyllales order, including beets, Swiss chard, and prickly pear (aka opuntia or cactus pear). Red beets are the best food source by far, with most of the betalains concentrated in the peel, though you can also obtain betalains from beetroot juice and beet greens. Other sources include amaranth (greens and seeds), dragon fruit (pitahaya), and some species of wild mushrooms you’d have to forage for such as bicolor boletes.
Interestingly there are numerous applications of betalains or beetroot extract in the food industry, where they are used as a replacement for synthetic food dyes, however widespread application has been limited due to limitations in the stability of betalains. Betanin can also be considered a natural food preservative and alternative to synthetic antioxidants.
Best Food Sources of Betalains
The following foods have high concentrations of betalains, containing at least 12.5 mg per serving, making them our best food sources of this incredibly important class of phytonutrients!
Good Food Sources of Betalains
The following foods are excellent or good sources of betalains, containing at least 2.5 mg (and up to 12.5 mg) per serving.
Top 5 Common Food Sources
If you’re looking for top 5 common food sources of other important nutrients check out these posts!
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