# Beetroot juice - Legal blood doping?



## Richgsr (Nov 12, 2012)

I have a friend who's a vegan and health nut who turned me on to the benefits of beetroot juice. He's an avid runner, and he told me once he started adding beet juice to his diet, he noticed a marked improvement in his stamina. Intrigued, I started adding canned beets and beet juice to my morning smoothie, and found that it did indeed help.

But don't take my word for it. Here's a few articles on the subject:

The Truth About Beetroot Juice

Beetroot juice may help beet your best - Telegraph

Reap the Benefits of Beetroot Juice

The section of the last article that might be most interesting to us mt. bikers is:


> Preliminary research suggested that consuming a large dose of pharmaceutical sodium nitrate (0.1 mmol/kg/day for three days) resulted in a lower oxygen cost during submaximal cycling.4 In practical terms, the nitrate supplementation improved exercise economy-the muscles used less oxygen for a given work rate. This finding was surprising and challenged a fundamental principle of human exercise physiology: During submaximal exercise, there's a predictable oxygen cost for a given work rate. Furthermore, the increase in oxygen uptake is linearly related to the increase in work rate, and this relationship can't be altered.
> 
> As a result, Bailey and other researchers in the United Kingdom became interested in whether they could obtain similar results when administering the nitrate dose in the form of nitrate-rich beetroot juice. This distinction is important since sodium nitrate is considered a drug, whereas beetroot juice is a natural food product individuals can readily include in the diet.
> ...
> Bailey and associates evaluated the effect of beetroot juice consumption for six days on the oxygen cost of moderate- and high-intensity exercise, blood pressure, and plasma nitrite concentrations. The subjects consumed 0.5 L of Beet It (5.5 mmol of nitrate) or placebo (a black current cordial with negligible nitrate) for six days and completed a series of low- and high-intensity cycling tests on the last three days. On days 4 to 6, plasma nitrite concentration was significantly higher and systolic blood pressure was dramatically lower (8 mm Hg) in subjects who drank beetroot juice compared with placebo. The beetroot juice significantly reduced the oxygen cost of moderate-intensity cycling exercise by 19% and increased the time to exhaustion during high-intensity cycling by 17%.2


I've found I've bonked less and less on those longer rides since drinking beet juice every day. I encourage everyone to give it a shot!

-Rich


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## Tone's (Nov 12, 2011)

Do you usually 'bonk' much out on your bike rides? i cant believe how many people i hear like to engage in sexual activities when they are on a ride..
Why do you think beetroot juice has reduced the amount of bonking you do on your rides, isnt it meant to help you stamina wise ?
cheers


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## Richgsr (Nov 12, 2012)

LOL, well I think you're confusing bonk with boink.

In any case, I've noticed that on longer rides (4 hours or more), my "time to bonk" has gradually increased. I believe the beetroot juice has allowed my muscles to work a bit more efficiently, thus expending less energy. Thus, from my experience, it's taken a bit longer for me to hit that wall, if at all (depending on the length and difficulty of the ride) since I've added beetroot juice. Again, this is all non-scientific, but I encourage people to give it a try.


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## knutso (Oct 8, 2008)

Good Info! I almost always push till I bonk and then on the ride home I see a fine roadie I wanna boink and all hell breaks loose!


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## scottz123 (Jun 16, 2012)

Richgsr said:


> I have a friend who's a vegan and health nut who turned me on to the benefits of beetroot juice. He's an avid runner, and he told me once he started adding beet juice to his diet, he noticed a marked improvement in his stamina. Intrigued, I started adding canned beets and beet juice to my morning smoothie, and found that it did indeed help.
> 
> But don't take my word for it. Here's a few articles on the subject:
> 
> ...


Are you drinking 160z of beet root juice per the study? That's a lot of juice!
Are you 'juicing' it yourself?

Beetroot Juice Boosts Stamina, New Study Shows


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## Chase1996 (Jun 30, 2010)

scottz123 said:


> Are you drinking 160z of beet root juice per the study? That's a lot of juice!
> Are you 'juicing' it yourself?
> 
> Beetroot Juice Boosts Stamina, New Study Shows


What is your daily dosage?


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## Richgsr (Nov 12, 2012)

I drink about 8-10 ounces during the weekdays, as I rarely ride for longer than an hour on those days. I mix this in with my breakfast smoothie (I drink about a 24oz smoothie for breakfast every morning). I drink 16 oz a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday are my longer ride days, and when I feel I need a bit more stamina.

I buy canned beets with juice that I throw in my Ninja with my smoothies. I do go through alot of cans.

I also have beetroot juice as well that I drink straight, usually on the longer ride days.


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## Chase1996 (Jun 30, 2010)

Does anyone have experience with Beet root powder? How many teaspoons of powder foe how many ounces of water?


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## dave54 (Jul 1, 2003)

Tone's said:


> Do you usually 'bonk' much out on your bike rides? i cant believe how many people i hear like to engage in sexual activities when they are on a ride..
> Why do you think beetroot juice has reduced the amount of bonking you do on your rides, isnt it meant to help you stamina wise ?
> cheers


You're not too far off. One of the trace phytochemicals in beets is similar to the active ingredient in Viagra. 

It does not have to be beet juice, just eating beets gives you the same effect, although the juice is more concentrated.

Do read up on the side effects and contraindications before megadosing on beets, though. They are one of the vegetables that can be too much of a good thing.


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## Chase1996 (Jun 30, 2010)

Just bought a few pounds of this:

Beet Root Powder - Starwest Botanicals

I am mixing 1 teaspoon of the powder with 8 oz water, 6 oz of grape juice and 2 oz of apple juice. Tasty!

I will double this up on my heavy mileage days.


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## Wildworks (Feb 14, 2013)

fyi although not as high in nitrates ( the key in beetroot for increased performance) spinach is very high as well and much cheaper and easy to make into a drinkable form via high speed blender i put 2 cups of spinach and 1 cup water and blend it.. and it doent taste like dirt!


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## GTscoob (Apr 27, 2009)

If you're ingesting that much beet juice, might be worthwhile to pick up a juicer and start juicing your own. It's really easy and much better for you since you ditch the preservatives added with the canning process. 16oz is probably the juice from 3 beets - not sure where you're at but beets are very cheap at the local farmers markets.

Didnt ride in to work today but started off with a nice juice of apples, beets, carrots, and celery. Would have added spinach instead of the celery but the celery was turning yellow and needed to be ingested before going bad.


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## Chase1996 (Jun 30, 2010)

GTscoob said:


> If you're ingesting that much beet juice, might be worthwhile to pick up a juicer and start juicing your own. It's really easy and much better for you since you ditch the preservatives added with the canning process. 16oz is probably the juice from 3 beets - not sure where you're at but beets are very cheap at the local farmers markets.
> 
> Didnt ride in to work today but started off with a nice juice of apples, beets, carrots, and celery. Would have added spinach instead of the celery but the celery was turning yellow and needed to be ingested before going bad.


This is why I opted for the Beetroot powder. Much more concentrated than juicing regular beets (obviously I would prefer to juice if the concentration were the same).

I believe it takes around 25 pounds of raw beets to make one pound of powder. Based on the recommended serving size, I get 90 servings per pound...for around $14.

FYI


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