How Beetroot And Its Juice Improve Physical Endurance

Beets are known to increase blood flow, muscle function, and brain activity. So they are expected to improve sports-related performance. Let us look at what science says in that regard.

Nitrates

Beets are naturally high in compounds called nitrates.

When you consume beetroot or its juice, you get nitrates which are absorbed in your blood and start circulating the body.

Nitrates reach their peak blood levels within one to two hours of drinking the juice.

One-fourth of these blood nitrates are captured by your salivary glands fairly quickly and released into saliva. The glands cannot grab the nitrates from beets when you consume them; they need them in the blood for absorption.

Nitrites

Some bacteria on your tongue convert the nitrates in saliva into another set of compounds called nitrites.

As you swallow these nitrites through saliva, they are absorbed into your blood.

Within two to three hours of consuming beets, your blood nitrite levels peak. You must time this peak to your event’s critical phase.

After this, blood nitrite levels come down gradually to normal over twenty-four hours.

Nitric Oxide

Certain blood proteins and enzymes convert the blood nitrites to the performance superstar: nitric oxide (NO), a compound that relaxes blood vessels and increases blood flow through them, precisely what you need for breaking the world record.

Research shows that two conditions increase the nitrites to nitric oxide conversion:

1. Low blood oxygen; and
2. Acidic blood pH.

When do you think a sportsperson encounters these conditions? When he is gasping for breath and his blood is flooding with lactic acid or lactate. In other words: during an all-out physical effort.

Nitric Oxide Lowers Blood Pressure

Once nitric oxide is in your bloodstream, it increases the blood flow and oxygen supply to the tissues. Through some biochemical mechanisms, the muscles of the blood vessels relax, resulting in lower blood pressure.

Nitric Oxide Increases VO_{2 max}

When one exercises, the muscles get oxygen through the blood for producing energy. However, as the exercise intensity increases beyond a certain point, the oxygen the blood provides is insufficient. As a result, the muscle cells switch from an oxygen-dependent energy production (aerobic) to an oxygen-independent one (anaerobic).

The anaerobic way of generating energy is very inefficient and you cannot sustain such effort for too long. This leads to rapid fatigue and forces you to slow down. The point at which the muscles switch over from aerobic to anaerobic energy production is called your metabolic threshold. That is when your aerobic capacity is exhausted, which is defined in terms of a number that all sportspeople are familiar with: VO_{2 max} or maximum volume of oxygen that your body uses when exercising as hard as possible. As you can guess, it is a good indicator of your physical fitness.

By increasing the blood flow, nitric oxide helps muscles get more oxygen, especially the tissues that are deprived of oxygen. This effectively increases your VO_{2 max}. While your fitness has not really increased, you will be able to function as if it has, at least for a few hours.

Beets and Endurance

Since beets supply you with a good amount of nitrates, your muscles are able to get this extra amount of oxygen. As a result, the beets are expected to enhance your endurance and exercise capacity. So what does the evidence show?

• Drinking beet juice before exercise allows you to exercise longer. It increases lung function and strengthens muscle contraction, together improving cardio-respiratory endurance.
• Consuming whole beets significantly improves running performance. Even the perceived exertion by athletes reduces if they have consumed beets seventy-five minutes before the run. Of course, you may not be able to run at your best if you ingest a lot of beets. Use discretion.
• Beetroot juice can help improve cycling performance in trained cyclists.
• How soon before activity should you consume the beet juice? Three hours. Blood levels of nitric oxide peak two to three hours after drinking juice.
• It appears that older athletes and those who are not in the best shape are helped by beet juice the most.
• In an interesting experiment, scientists found evidence that blood haemoglobin senses oxygen levels and holds on to its nitric oxide and oxygen when oxygen levels in tissue are high. However, it releases oxygen and nitric oxide when oxygen levels are low. That would mean beets could be more useful to the muscle cells falling short of oxygen due to exertion.

How Much Beets You Should Consume

The amount of beet consumption needed for sports benefits is different from that needed for general health.

For Endurance Improvement

Here are the calculations.

• A hundred grams of raw beets have 90 mg of nitrates.
• For sports performance improvement, you need to ingest 500 mg or more of nitrates in one go.
• So, you would need to eat 550 grams of raw beetroots, a practical impossibility a few hours before an athletic event.
• Juicing beetroot removes fibre and reduces bulk—330 mL of beetroot juice will give the same nitrate benefit as 550 grams of raw beetroots.
• In some countries, you get concentrated beetroot juice in 70 mL ‘shots’, which have roughly the same contents as 160 mL of regular beetroot juice.
• One shot three hours before and another two hours before the event can also provide the needed 500 mg nitrate boost.
• Don’t attempt this for the first time before your competition. Try it a few times in training to see how it works for you.

Some information in this article is taken from my book Superfoods, Super Life published by Pan Macmillan India Publishers. The book covers twenty superfoods: Tomatoes, coconut, capsicum, drumsticks, amla, jamun, turmeric, aloe vera, papaya, garlic, ginger, pineapple, carrots, spinach, beets, green tea, cinnamon, flax seeds, asafoetida (hing), and sabja (sweet basil seeds). The book gives their nutrients, health benefits, recommended amounts and excess levels. It explains how to select, prepare and store them and who should avoid them.

Paperback and Kindle versions are available on Amazon India on this link and Amazon USA on this link.

While this article is not about beet consumption for general health, let me cover that for the sake of completeness, taken directly from the book.

For General Health

• Experts advise consuming about one and a half cups (two hundred grams) of beetroot a day. This should give you 180 mg of nitrates.
• The recommendation is based on 800 mg of nitrates daily for a person of 80-kilogram body weight. Since other foods will also supply some nitrates, it is good enough to stay with the advised amount of beets.
• Usually, one kilogram of beetroots will yield 600 mL of beetroot juice. So consume 120 mL of beetroot juice daily for the same nitrate benefit as above.
• Remember that juicing removes dietary fibre, eliminating a significant source of health benefits.
• Cooking beets reduces the bioavailability of their nitrates. So beets are best consumed raw for their nitrate-related benefits.

To Read More

• United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee: How Beetroot Juice Can Improve Your Performance
• On this website: Can garlic enhance athletic performance?
• Coach Magazine: What Is VO2 Max And How Do You Improve It?
• On this website: These exercises can slow down your ageing

First published on: 17th January 2023
Image credit: Image by Freepik
Last Updated on: 24th June 2023