Sports Research

Why is Beet It Sport the #1 natural nitrate supplement used by research?

Beet It Sport shots guarantee 400mg of natural nitrate from concentrated beetroot juice – the amount required for sports performance improvement. This is why our Beet It Sport shots have become the go-to-standard among elite athletes and researchers.

Our Beet It Sport shots have been independently used for research in over 200 nutritional, medical and sports science institutes and universities in over 30 countries worldwide (UK, US, Australia, Canada, China, Africa, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and many more).

Leading research into dietary nitrate supplementation for sports performance is undertaken at The University of Exeter under Professor Andy Jones.

Click HERE to view our graphic representation summary of the many different sports and areas the Research is encompassing.

Placebo Beetroot Shots –  the true placebo

We are incredibly proud to have developed nitrate-depleted placebo versions of SPORT shots in conjunction with The University of Exeter. Why remove the active ingredient? – well, researchers need to test Beet It Sport against a true placebo to ensure the beneficial effects are indeed caused by the active ingredient nitrate.

Nitrate-depleted shots also enable a double-blind trial to be conducted, which means neither the participant or research know which participants are receiving the nitrate-rich Beet It Sport shot and which are not. Ultimately, this leads to more robust research as researchers can attribute the positive effects to the active ingredient, nitrate.

We are happy to provide our Placebo Beet It Sport shots to teams and institutions in Australia, please email us on info@ozbeetit.com

 

A Summary of Research by Discipline and Activity

Athletic performance

Improved endurance and stamina (overall)

• Concentrated beet juice shown to improve cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes, increase time to exhaustion, and may increase maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max)
• Domînguez et al (2017) Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review.

Improved endurance/running

• Concentrated beet juice shown to reduce oxygen consumption during moderate- and high-intensity running and can increase time to exhaustion at high intensity by 14 percent.
• Wylie, et al (2013) Beetroot juice and exercise: pharmacodynamic and dose-response relationships.

Improved endurance/swimming

• Beet juice “positively affects performance of swimmers as it reduces the [aerobic energy cost] and increases the workload at anaerobic threshold.”
• Pinna et al (2014) Effect of beetroot juice supplementation on aerobic response during swimming.

Improved performance/cycling time trial

• Beet juice shown to improve 4km and 16.1km cycling time-trial performance by 2.4% and 2.7%, respectively.
• Lansley, et al (2011) Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves cycling time trial performance.

Improved sprint performance

• One Beet It Sport Shot per day shown to significantly improve maximal sprint running performance by an average of 2.5%.
• Thompson, et al (2017) The effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on the adaptations to sprint interval training in previously untrained males.

Improved strength and power

• Concentrated beet juice shots shown to enhance muscle speed and power by 4% in healthy participants.
• Coggan, et al (2015) Effect of acute dietary nitrate on maximal knee extensor speed and power in healthy men and women.

Speeds recovery

• Beet juice may increase the delivery of oxygen to the working muscles during post-workout recovery.
• Vanhatalo (2014) Dietary nitrate accelerates post-exercise muscle metabolic recovery and O2 delivery in hypoxia.

Improves cognitive function

• Concentrated beet juice shown to improve reaction time of response during latter stages of exercise.
• Thompson et al (2015): Dietary nitrate improves sprint performance and cognitive function during prolonged intermittent exercise.

Blood pressure and medical

Lowered blood pressure/healthy adults

• A review of 16 research trials found nitrate-rich beet juice significantly lowers systolic blood pressure by -4.5 to -7.4 mmHg among healthy adults.
• “The seventh report of the Joint National Committee on BP estimated that a systolic BP reduction of at least 5 mmHg (as observed here) could decrease the risk of mortality due to stroke by 14% and mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 9%.”
• Siervo et al (2013) Inorganic nitrate and beetroot juice supplementation reduces blood pressure in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Lowered blood pressure/ hypertensive patients

• Beet juice shown to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 8.1 and 3.8 mmHg, respectively, in patients with hypertension.“
• These findings suggest a role for dietary nitrate as an affordable, readily-available, adjunctive treatment in the management of hypertensive patients.” 
• Kapil, et al (2015) Dietary nitrate provides sustained blood pressure lowering in hypertensive patients: a randomized, phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. 

Improved respiration among COPD patients

• Beet juice shown to improve exercise capacity and decrease systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 6.4 and 5.6 mmHg, respectively, in COPD patients
• Berry, et al (2015) Dietary nitrate supplementation improves exercise performance and decreases blood pressure in COPD patients.

Improved exercise capacity among heart failure patients

• Submaximal aerobic endurance improved 24% after 1 week of daily beetroot juice dosing…Consumption of beetroot juice significantly reduced resting systolic blood pressure and increased plasma nitrate and nitrite in both of the dosing schemes.
• Eggebeen, et al (2016) One week of daily dosing with beetroot juice improves submaximal endurance and blood pressure in older patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction.

The nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway starts here

It’s the discovery that launched hundreds of clinical studies, and triggered today’s the worldwide health and sports performance interest in Beet It Sport Shots and Bars.

From the New York Times:

Three American pharmacologists were awarded the Nobel Prize yesterday for their surprising discoveries of how natural production of a gas, nitric oxide, can mediate a wide variety of bodily actions. Those include widening blood vessels, helping to regulate blood pressure, initiating erections, battling infections, preventing formation of blood clots and acting as a signal molecule in the nervous system.

Click here for the original, official Nobel Prize announcement.