Does Beetroot Juice Improve Exercise Performance

Highlights:

Dietary nitrate is known to improve exercise, both endurance and high-intensity exercise
Consumption of dietary nitrate, the active molecule in beetroot juice, was observed to increase muscle force while exercising
It is the best evidence on the mechanisms of why dietary nitrate improves muscle performance among people

Ingesting dietary nitrate - the active ingredient in beetroot juice - increased muscle force when exercising significantly, revealed a new study.

Beetroot Saga
Beet contains the antioxidant betacyanin and is a natural source of nitrate which makes it a super food which needs to be consumed on a regular basis.

‘People who received nitrate supplementation an hour before exercise, had a nitrate boost during the workout, which resulted in a 7% increase in muscular force when compared to the placebo group.’

Tweet it Now

Health Benefits of Dietary Nitrate

While it is well established that dietary nitrate improves exercise, both endurance and high-intensity exercise, researchers still have a lot to understand about why this happens and how our bodies convert dietary nitrate that we intake into nitric oxide that our cells can utilise.

Researchers from the University of Exeter and the National Institutes of Health traced the distribution of ingested nitrate in the saliva, blood, muscle, and urine of 10 healthy volunteers who were then asked to do maximal leg exercise to help close this gap.

Eating Strategies and Foods to Enhance Stamina
Foods like bananas, ashwagandha, beetroot, and nuts help to increase stamina. Eating strategies like consuming several small, balanced meals also benefits.

Nitrate Supplementation Increases Muscle Force

The researchers wanted to know where in the body dietary nitrate was active to gain insight into the mechanisms at work.

Participants were asked to execute 60 contractions of the quadriceps (the thigh muscle activated while straightening the knee) at maximal intensity for five minutes after taking the nitrate. The researchers discovered a considerable increase in nitrate levels in muscle. During the exercises, the researchers discovered that the nitrate supplement increased muscle force by 7% when compared to the placebo.

Beetroot Juice Before Exercise can Keep Your Brain Younger
Drinking beetroot juice an hour before exercising can improve the brain function. Beetroot juice improves oxygen supply to the brain, thus delaying brain aging.

Does Beetroot Juice Help Enhance Performance

Andy Jones, Professor of Applied Physiology at the University of Exeter, said, “Our research has already provided a large body of evidence on the performance-enhancing properties of dietary nitrate, commonly found in beetroot juice. Excitingly, this latest study provides the best evidence to date on the mechanisms behind why dietary nitrate improves human muscle performance.”

Previous research discovered an increase in nitrate in tissue and bodily fluid after consuming tagged dietary nitrate. The tracer was utilized in the new study to correctly determine where nitrate is increased and active, as well as give fresh information on how the nitrate we consume is used to promote exercise performance.

Beetroot Peptide Serves as A Potential Drug Candidate For Treating Diseases
Peptide derived from beetroot inhibited a particular enzyme that is responsible for the breakdown of messenger molecules in the body, revealed a research group.

Nitrate Levels Linked with Exercise Performance

“This study provides the first direct evidence that muscle nitrate levels are important for exercise performance, presumably by acting as a source of nitric oxide,” said Dr. Barbora Piknova, research collaborator and staff scientist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. “These results have significant implications not only for the exercise field but possibly for other medical areas such as those targeting neuromuscular and metabolic diseases related to nitric oxide deficiency.”

Source-Medindia