rsbob 

Have been reading about the cardiac benefits due to the nitric-oxide found in beets. Lowering blood pressure and better oxygen uptake are two of the claimed benefits. I have been using it for a week before workouts and have noticed a slight reduction in pulse and BP. Have yet to determine about the performance aspect but some friends who are die-hard runners are convinced.

And now for a biased summary of all the benefits by a retailer but I read a handful of studies which substantiate these claims:

https://www.humann.com/science-overv...c-oxide-works/

I-Like-To-Bike

What does Dr. Oz or Joe Rogan have to say about it?

wolfchild

I don't take any supplements because the entire supplement industry is a scam...Just eat real food, that's all that your body needs.

wolfchild

Very clever marketing strategy.

I-Like-To-Bike

For not very clever potential customers.

79pmooney

I've been talking beet root for nearly 30 years. Haven't even thought about documenting the before and after but my heart has stayed strong, BP and HR low. No, not my racing days low but I am now in my 60s, not 20s and annual mileage is in the low thousands, not bumping 5 digits.

However, I have so far refused to consume my beet root in processed form where it goes from the ground to a central place, gets dried and ground almost certainly with loss of nutrients, then packaged and distributed perhaps long distances and the packaging gets tossed or recycled. My beet root goes from ground to farmer's market, then home on bike to my frying pan where nearly all of the rest of the plant also goes. The rest into my compost and garden. Every container of the transport gets reused. When I lived in Seattle, I had the proper soil the beets went straight from garden to frying pan (then usually wok). When young, the entire plant is good eating and later, the beet roots went through Seattle winters in the garden just fine.

wolfchild

That's a very good nutrition strategy. Eat them the way they come from nature and not packaged powdered supplement.

VegasTriker

I wondered how this would play out. I have seen a lot of advertisements pop up recently touting the “benefits” of eating powdered beet root but always ignored them. I like fresh beets and eat them often but never considered it anything more than a delicious part of my diet. I too am skeptical of the many claims for supplements. Some years ago a Utah legislator in Washington made it very difficult for the FDA, which has jurisdiction over drugs and adulterated food, to challenge claims of any product that can be considered to be a food (versus a drug). That means it rarely does anything about supplements until they start killing people. They can be totally useless but unless they make you seriously ill, it is pretty much the wild west when it comes to claims. If you introduce a new drug you have to do real scientific studies to show that it actually works and doesn't have a bunch of really nasty side effects. None of this is required for food supplements.

Powdered beet root is a pretty good marketing scheme. The product linked to by the OP is made for GNC and the price for 150 grams (~1/3 pound) is $35. If you figure that raw beets are 87% water (https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/beetroot) then the powdered beet root in one $35 package of GNC powdered root is equal to about 1.5 pounds of fresh beets. My local market had them on sale this past week for 50 cents a pound. Compare 75 cents to the $35 GNC is charging for the 150g container. Of course you have to cook and peel the beets before eating them so they are not so handy.

If you know the properties of nitrous oxide it will make you wonder how they came up with this claim. In it's gaseous form it is highly toxic when breathed in. If it was in the form of a gas in the package, it would escape when you opened the container so it must be in the form of an inorganic nitrate salt in the beet root. There are lots of peer reviewed studies advising you to stay away from processed meats because they contain nitrate salts for preservatives. There is a strong link to colon cancer. Makes one wonder how nitrates in beets are beneficial while nitrates in meat are not.

GhostRider62

I take it intravenously. Increased my VO2 max by 3.41592 %

Stacked with arugula, I am pushing 4%. Mahogany in the morning.

pdlamb

I think I got some because someone recommended it for faster recovery. I drank a couple water bottles' worth. Didn't see any benefit, but the flavor turned me off.

Looked it up on the interwebs, and apparently the phytochemicals or was it cyto-somethings from beets are used the the scents industry; they smell like dirt. Beets themselves don't taste like dirt to me, but powdered beet juice does!

OldsCOOL

Why?

rutan74

What is the diff between powdered beet root and beet juice? Yea, I know one is a liquid. Really though, you can buy beet juice in the store so why would you need the powdered stuff? BTW, I did buy some of the powdered stuff and I saw no improvement whatsoever. Maybe it was me, but if given the choice, I'll just drink a glass of beet juice.

Now, this reminds me. Long story short. A friend of mine got on the beet juice kick about 7 years ago. Big ride and he caught up to me at a rest stop at mile 65 or so. Said he was in trouble. Seems he drank like a quart of the stuff the night before and was now regretting it. Yep, the good ole runs were making an appearance. Of course we all know to never try something new the day before a century, right?

Last I saw of him on the bike. We did catch a glimpse of him walking his bike up the last climb though. He made the cutoff to finish by 15 minutes. So, the moral of the story is don't drink a quart of the stuff before a ride let alone a century with 11k feet of climbing.

john

rsbob 

Since you are obviously literate, try reading this: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition...OC_TITLE_HDR_6

Here is the Readers Digest version quote from the Healthline link above, “can support the health of your brain, heart, and digestive system, be a great addition to a balanced diet, boost athletic performance, help alleviate inflammation, and possibly slow the growth of cancer cells.”

Carbonfiberboy 

The ration of powdered beetroot to beets is 1 tablespoon of powder = about three medium beets. I suspect the juice is similarly concentrated. The usual athletic dose of the juice is 250-500 ml. From the performance aspect, the active ingredient in beets is inorganic nitrate. Therefore the simplest and by far the cheapest (it's so cheap as to be almost free) is to take 1g of sodium nitrate every morning. The best athletic studies in fact used sodium nitrate because who knows how much nitrate is in any of the vegetable derived products? The main noticeable effect is to lower blood pressure by a few percent. Studies show it improves performance also by a few percent, no huge thing. Studies also show it has little performance effect on elites, probably because they've got everything tuned to the max. However for us geezers who might not have the world's best arteries anymore, it might be worth trying.

When this data first came out, there were a few racers on BF who thought it made a difference indeed. I've been taking the sodium nitrate every morning for maybe 15 years. I have no idea about the performance aspect, but the BP thing is real and lower BP is always a good thing.

This meta-study has a good overview IMO: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/9/3183/htm

rsbob 

Now that I have been taking it for awhile and wearing a HRM pre and during beet root, I am still hitting 170+ BPM but do not feel as winded and seem to recover from long climbs a bit better before the next. Without trying, I surprised myself by getting 5 fastest segment times on Strava for my age group today. In all fairness, two were downhill. Can’t imagine how good the times would be if I pushed myself. No way can I compete against the youngsters nor due I try. Placebo effect? Perhaps, but I’ll take it.

Nay sayers can read CarbonfiberBoy’s meta study.

PeteHski

Placebo affect is real, so why not? Most things I've read appear to link beet juice with a marginal gain (no idea about powdered form) so probably worth a try. Unfortunately I hate beet juice, so it's not one for me!

I-Like-To-Bike

Or those seeking a more exotic placebo for boosting their all important "performance stats" can read the recipe at:
https://myshakespeare.com/macbeth/act-4-scene-1

bruce19

I was drinking 100% organic beet juice for BP. It helped. These days I'm taking a time release med (Diltiazem) that works more consistently. I drink the beet juice before rides though.

jppe

Something in beets is on my naughty list for kidney stones. Oxalates maybe???

Biker395 

Honestly, I am skeptical of any claims like this without double blind clinical trials to back it up (anecdotes are nice, but not evidence, IMHO).

Have you got links to those studies?

Trakhak

Also skeptical. I worked for a .org publisher of microbiological journals for 20 years. Seeing the amount of scrutiny each submitted article was subjected to (overall, our journals averaged an 85% rejection rate) suggests to me that .com publishers are where articles go that can't make it through peer review in the non-profit journals.

On a side note, speaking of anecdotal data, is it just the older cyclists I know or do the guys who are way into supplements tend to be those who were big on recreational drugs in their younger years?

CAT7RDR

I started a small veggie garden and grew beets for a couple seasons.
Anecdotally? Good energy source; liked the taste cooked with a little bit of salted butter.
No GI issues.

Tried beet juice from concentrate and powdered tabs and both gave be a lot of extra gas and bloating.

Conclusion: Go natural and do not expect miracles but include as part of a varied diet.

rsbob 

Skepticism is always healthy. Finding double blind studies, the gold standard in my opinion, will take more time than I am willing to invest. There are many studies on the positive effects of nitrate on athletes and coronary patients to sift through.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21407132/. Read the citations below the article as well.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/9/3183/htm
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29412076/

If you are skeptical then so be it. That’s fine. I have no dog in this fight. All I know is that I have found positive results which probably means I am not a highly trained athlete or am enjoying the placebo effect.

Carbonfiberboy 

There's always the google machine. It works for me. Caveat: requires interest in the subject matter to the extent of looking things up for oneself. E.g. a quick google for "ncbi sodium nitrate" turned up this link on the first page: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4245587/

It helps to know enough science to be able to generate that search term. For further study, there are 106 reference links at the end of the article.

Biker395 

Interesting! Thanks!