As a personal trainer an avid runner, I am always paying attention to methods to improve fitness whether through nutrition or exercise techniques. I try to keep up on the heaps of data (most of which is conflicting) in this area which can feel like a full time job. As I am gearing up to run the Boston marathon next month (yep I am going back woohoo!), I have been particularly interested in a relatively new body of research that one of my awesome trainers told me about. . . .Eating beets can significantly improve exercise performance.

What? That's what I thought initially as you may have as well. After researching the studies on this topic, it does appear true after all.

In an effort to explain this best, let quote an article from the website naturalnews.com (they sound much smarter than me 😄):

Beet juice is naturally high in nitrate (NO3), which the body uses to make both nitrite (NO2) and nitric oxide. Nitrite is known to protect the blood vessels from injury, while nitric acid expands blood vessels and therefore increases the flow of oxygen to the cells. This, in turn, increases both the power available to the muscles and the length of time that the muscles can exercise without tiring.

Early studies into the effectiveness of beet juice for exercise showed that people who drink the juice for several days before undergoing exercise tests do indeed use less oxygen in their muscles, and are correspondingly able to exercise for longer. In one study, drinking beet juice decreased oxygen needs by 19 percent and increased exercise endurance time by 17 percent.

Wow! This is quite a statement as 19 and 17 percent is a significant amount. As I read on, I also learned that not only does it increase one's endurance, meaning a longer, capable bout of exercise, but it also increases speed. It seems beet juice allows your muscles to perform the same amount of work while using less oxygen, somehow making your body's energy production more efficient.

Let me mention a few study findings to further convince you if you are skeptical:

• Beet juice increased time to exhaustion: cyclists who drank beet juice could ride 16 per cent longer than without beet juice in their diet. The beet juice also allowed them to increase intensity with less oxygen cost.
• In walkers and runners, beet juice reduced the oxygen cost of walking and moderate and intense running, and increased time to exhaustion.
• Runners who ate baked beets before running a 5km time trial ran faster (and the last 1.8 km five per cent faster), and had a lower rate of perceived exertion during the first part of the run.
• Trained divers could hold their breath almost half-a-minute longer if they drank beet juice before their dive.

This is just a few of the several studies showing the benefits of beet consumption on exercise endurance and performance.

If the thought of eating beets makes you cringe, other vegetable have nitrates (they just aren't as concentrated as beets). They include: Vegetables high in nitrates include: rhubarb, arugula, spinach, celery, cress, chervil, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, endive, fennel, kohlrabi, leek, and parsley.

And what's also nice is that it doesn't take a lot of it to see benefit. Studies show that 500ml of juice, or roughly one medium sized beet is sufficient to see benefits. So WALK or RUN (or whatever it is you do) to your own BEET! Couldn't resist ;)