Beetroot and Running Performance

There have been a number of studies recently that show Beetroot (beets in the US) improve exercise performance including running. Beetroot juice has no side effects, takes effect within an hour, and remains active for days. However, don't clean your teeth or use a mouthwash immediately before consuming the beetroot.

1 Details

Studiesindicate that beetroot juice has a number of benefits

• Improved Running Economy, which is reduction in the oxygen required across a range of efforts. This is without any increase in blood lactate that would indicate nonoxidative energy production.
• Increased time to exhaustion in maximal exercise with VO₂max unchanged.
• Reduced resting blood pressure.

2 Effective Dose

It's been suggested that the minimum effective dose is 5 mmol of Nitrate (NO₃) . (For Nitrate, 1g=16mmol.) However, nitrate content of beetroot is highly variable, with whole beetroots and beetroot powder varying by a factor of ten between varieties. The variation between beetroot juices was even larger, varying by x250.

3 Sources

There are lots of products based on beets, and it's hard to work out what's going to be the best for convenience and cost.

3.1 Beetroot

The obvious source is beetroot as a vegetable. An analysis found that beetroot averages ~1g/Kg fresh beetroot, which is ~15 mmol/Kg. Therefore, you'd need to eat about 300g/11oz of beetroot. However, different varieties varied between ~280mg/Kg and 2,300mg/Kg.

3.2 Beetroot Powder

An analysis of four powders found the nitrate content varying between 0.125 mmol/g and 0.87 mmol/g, meaning you'd need to take between 6g and 40g of beetroot powder, a huge variation. Another analysis of 6 powders found the variation to be from 0.10 to 0.256 mmol/g, requiring between 46g and 20g of powder for an effective dose. This makes beetroot powder quite expensive; I calculated the price between $2.50 and $6 per dose. Here's my rough estimate of the cost per 5mmol dose based on Amazon pricing. Important: both the price and nitrate concentration could easily vary for the same brand, so use this data with caution. None of the available beetroot sources specifies the nitrate concentration'.'

Brand	g/serving	mmol/serving	mmol/g	g/dose	unit price	Grams/unit	per gram	cost/dose
redibeets	4	0.43	0.1075	47	$ 32	250	0.128	$ 5.95
superbeets	5	1.03	0.2060	24	$ 35	153	0.229	$ 5.55
endurance beets	11	1.08	0.0982	51	$ 17	220	0.077	$ 3.94
beetboost	11	1.78	0.1618	31	$ 38	200	0.190	$ 5.87
beetelite	10	2.16	0.2160	23	$ 35	200	0.175	$ 4.05
pureclean powder	10	2.56	0.2560	20	$ 39	300	0.130	$ 2.54

Another alternative would be "bulk supplements beet powder", which is much cheaper per gram, but with unknown nitrate concentration.

4 Beetroot Juice

The amount of nitrate in beetroot juice also varies widely, and I calculated the rough cost/dose. I was surprised to find that beetroot juice was far cheaper than the powders. Important: both the price and nitrate concentration could easily vary for the same brand, so use this data with caution. None of the available beetroot sources specifies the nitrate concentration'.'

Brand	ml/serving	mmol/serving	mmol/ml	ml/dose	unit price	ml/unit	per ml	cost/dose
Lakewood juice	500	18.77	0.0375	133	$ 6	946	0.007	$ 0.89
Beet it juice	500	7.55	0.0151	331	$ 12	1000	0.012	$ 3.97

Please support this site This review was made possible by readers like you buying products via my links. I buy all the products I review through normal retail channels, which allows me to create unbiased reviews free from the influence of reciprocity, or the need to keep vendors happy. It also ensures I don't get "reviewer specials" that are better than the retail versions.

5 Implications for Runners

Beetroot supplementation a way of reducing the energy cost of exercise (improved Running Economy). This reduction in energy cost is especially important for marathon runners, where the Glycogen stores are a limiting factor in performance. Runners focused on shorter distances would benefit from the increased time to exhaustion at high intensity.

6 Period of Effect

The changes from beetroot take effect in about 30 minutes, peak after 90 minutes, stay elevated for 6 hours and remain effective for at least 15 days Taking beetroot juice daily will build up the effect over a 3-4 days then plateau.

7 Active Component

One study removed the Nitrates from the beetroot juice and found that the effects also disappeared, indicating that the Nitrates are the active ingredient. The Nitrates (NO₃) in beetroot juice are converted to Nitrites (NO₂), and it is the nitrite that has the effect. Using an antibacterial mouthwash before taking beetroot juice prevents the nitrate being turned into nitrite.

8 Side Effects

The only documented side effects of beetroot (other than the taste) is Beeturia, which is pink or red colored urine. While this effect may be disconcerting, it is harmless and effects only about 10-14% of the healthy population. However, you are far more likely to have Beeturia if you are anemic, so have your blood checked if you get the symptoms, just in case. There are many other reported side effects of beetroot, including paralysis of vocal cords, have been reported on the internet, but I've found no documented cases and this appears to be urban legend.

9 The spinach alternative?

Another source of nitrate is spinach, which may be a substitute for those that don't like beets. Around 100-300g of spinach are claimed to have similar results to the equivalent weight of beets. Canned beets contain 170-290 mg/100g nitrates, and the spinach petioles (stalks) can contain a similar 10-260 mg/100g, but the spinach leaves only contain 4-12 mg/100g. Also, note that cooking reduces the nitrate levels in spinach. Some studies used Sodium Nitrate directly, at a level which may be equivalent to about 300g of spinach. Eating 300g (10oz) is about 7 cups of spinach, which would take some dedication to consume.

10 Alternatives

Another approach is to take the amino acids Citrulline or Arginine to boost nitric oxide. I'd recommend reading [1] and [2] for a review of the research.