What is it?
Beet juice is a drink made from beetroot, which is a food rich in nitrate. Currently, due to the discovery of the effects of nitrate on sports performance, beet juice has been considered as pre-workout by many athletes.
What’s beet juice for?
The juice provides nitrate to the body, which is reduced to nitrite and nitric oxide after, increasing plasma concentrations of nitric oxide. Nitrate supplementation has already been shown to be an important reduction in blood pressure in healthy and unhealthy individuals, and is also being used as an ergogenic resource by athletes.
How does beet juice work?
The nitrate present in the beverage improves the ability to exercise, reducing the time for exhaustion, and also improves performance, reducing the time to complete the exercise. Similarly, it has been shown that the “cost of oxygen” decreases by improving mitochondrial efficiency, in addition to improving the supply of oxygen to skeletal muscle during training.
When do you need to supplement?
It can be used as pre-workout especially by endurance athletes, and especially those who are not professionals yet (supplementation in elite athletes has not had clear results). The consensus view of experts is that nitrate supplementation with plant products is very unlikely to be harmful, but more long-term studies are still needed before chronic supplementation can be recommended.
References
Article: Flueck JL, Gallo A, Moelijker N, Bogdanov N, Bogdanova A, Perret C. Influence of Equimolar Doses of Beetroot Juice and Sodium Nitrate on Time Trial Performance in Handcycling. Nutrients
. 2019; 11(7):1642. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11071642
Reading suggestion:
Effects of beet juice on cardiorespiratory resistance of athletes
