The Jazz on Beetroot Juice

By Jose Antonio PhD.  Have you ever wondered why scientists can’t speak ‘normally?’ Sometimes it’s painful to watch one of my fellow scientists engage in a ‘normal’ conversation without having to use words like ‘mitochondria’ or ‘mTOR.’  But you gotta love ‘em.  They find out cool things and invent fun stuff like the iPod, rocket ships, the wheel, aircraft carriers, computers, antibiotics and on occasion study new cool supplements.  To wit I introduce nitrates.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s probably because you were too busy watching re-runs of some reality show about baking cupcakes.  Anyhow, a recent study found that dietary supplementation with nitrate-rich beetroot juice reduced both the oxygen cost and the degree of PCr degradation during both low- and high-intensity exercise, without affecting muscle pH.  Pretty nifty if I do say so myself.  In English, that means if you drink beetroot juice, which is high in dietary nitrates, it will help you exercise more efficiently and for a longer period of time. Amen to nitrates! According to these eggheads, “the reduced muscle metabolic perturbation with NO(3)(-) supplementation allowed high-intensity exercise to be tolerated for a greater period of time.[1]  And in another study, dietary nitrate intake has important implications for our understanding of the factors that regulate mitochondrial respiration and muscle contractile energetics in humans.[2]”  Aaaaaahhhhhhhh. Did you get that? Yeah I know.  Scientists have their own crazy language, secret hand shake, and for the most part, don’t know how to dress.   But this stuff really is interesting.  I mean we wouldn’t have creatine, beta-alanine, and nutrient timing if it weren’t for eggheads in a lab.  So if you see a scientist today, be nice to him.  Give him a kiss on the cheek and pat him on the a$$ (like you see in American Football).  He’ll appreciate it.  She may not.  But that’s the risk you take in making a scientist smile.

Oh did you see the study on betaine?  Two-weeks of betaine supplementation in active, college males  improves muscle endurance of the squat exercise, and increase the quality of repetitions performed.[3]  So there you have it.  Two supplements, betaine and nitrates. They work.  Try ‘em.  Impress your friends at the gym with some science talk.

Proof

[1]       S.J. Bailey, J. Fulford, A. Vanhatalo, P.G. Winyard, J.R. Blackwell, F.J. DiMenna, D.P. Wilkerson, N. Benjamin and A.M. Jones, Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances muscle contractile efficiency during knee-extensor exercise in humans, J Appl Physiol. 109 135-148.

[2]       S.J. Bailey, P. Winyard, A. Vanhatalo, J.R. Blackwell, F.J. Dimenna, D.P. Wilkerson, J. Tarr, N. Benjamin and A.M. Jones, Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans, J Appl Physiol. 107 (2009) 1144-1155.

[3]       J.R. Hoffman, N.A. Ratamess, J. Kang, S.L. Rashti and A.D. Faigenbaum, Effect of betaine supplementation on power performance and fatigue, J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 6 (2009) 7.