Beetroot and Running Performance

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1 Introduction

There have been a number of studies recently that show Beetroot (beets in the US) improve exercise performance including running. Beetroot juice takes effect within an hour and remains active for days.

2 Recommendations

Eating Beetroot or drinking beetroot juice has no side effects and is highly recommended. Drink about 500ml/1 pint of beetroot juice or a tin of beetroot (15oz) each day. Do not clean your teeth or use a mouthwash immediately before consuming the beetroot.

My daily salad, with lots of beets

3 Details

Studies[1][2][3][4][5]indicate that beetroot juice has a number of benefits

  • 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.

4 Implications for Runners

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

5 Period of Effect

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

6 Active Component

One study[2] 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[7].

7 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[8].

8 References

  1. Dietary nitrate reduces maximal oxygen consumption while maintaining work performance in maximal exercise. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19913611
  2. 2.0 2.1 A toast to health and performance! Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure and the O2 cost of exercise http://jap.physiology.org/content/110/3/585.extract
  3. Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances muscle contractile efficiency during knee-extensor exercise in humans http://jap.physiology.org/content/109/1/135.short
  4. 4.0 4.1 Acute and chronic effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on blood pressure and the physiological responses to moderate-intensity and incremental exercise http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/299/4/R1121.short
  5. Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans http://jap.physiology.org/content/107/4/1144.full
  6. Acute Blood Pressure Lowering, Vasoprotective, and Antiplatelet Properties of Dietary Nitrate via Bioconversion to Nitrite http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/51/3/784?ijkey=5ec725973d624beded6be2d3792e3ed9a10b09d2
  7. The increase in plasma nitrite after a dietary nitrate load is markedly attenuated by an antibacterial mouthwash http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18793740?dopt=Abstract
  8. What Are the Benefits of Drinking Beet Juice? http://www.livestrong.com/article/343584-what-are-the-benefits-of-drinking-beet-juice/