Beetroot juice for sports performance

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Beetroot juice, yes it's an acquired taste, yes it can turn your wee purple but it can also lower blood pressure, can reduce systemic inflammation and is high in nitrate which helps reduce the oxygen cost of exercise. Bonus!!

It works best for higher intensity, shorter efforts of 1 - 10mins and can make you faster by about 3%.

It can also benefit endurance efforts but to a lesser extent

Optimal dose is at least 440mg for a 70kg person which equates to about 300-500ml of beetroot juice or one 70ml concentrated commercial beetroot shot.

Serious athletes will dose up on beetroot juice every day for 5 days prior to an all important session or race

Me - I just like the taste of Beetroot Juice 😉

If you are keen to read more - here are some recent research papers on Beetroot Juice for sports performance and heart health

'The Effect of Dietary Nitrate Supplementation on Endurance Exercise Performance in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis'
Sports Medicine April 2017

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27600147

'Influence of beetroot juice supplementation on intermittent exercise performance.'
European Journal of Applied Physiology Feb 2016 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26614506

'Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review'
Nutrients Jan 2017
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28067808