Antioxidant, beneficial to cardiovascular system, and melts ice? The wonders of the beet
Every so often, products that claim to boost the performance or recovery of an athlete hit the shelves of grocery stores, bulk food retailers, and supplement shops, and become overnight necessities for your avid competitor.
Muscle Milk layers the clay ground of dugouts at baseball diamonds, while Gatorade coolers with their bright orange hue are spotted at every pitch, arena, and gridiron across North America.
Staples to their respective sports, liquid supplements are here to stay. For better or for worse, any potential damage done by their high sugar contents is placed second to the benefits of electrolytes and protein.
Recently, however, beetroot juice has made a splash in the athletic market – so much so that it warrants a discussion on the merits of this burgundy liquid.
First of all, when free of added ingredients, dieticians and nutritionists have made the argument that beets deserve to be listed in the ‘superfood’ category, with the likes of foods such as blueberries and salmon.
While beetroot juice can be appreciated for its accolades as an antioxidant, athletes are turning to beetroot juice for a beet’s ability to load a person up on nitrates. Nitrates, in laymen’s terms, help muscles use oxygen more efficiently.
In the past, nitrates in foods such as bacon have been under scrutiny from the wellness industry, but new research concludes that nitrates found organically in vegetables play an important role in cardiovascular health.
These claims prompted decorated U of G long-distance runner and master’s student, Kyle Boorsma, to study the health effects of beetroot juice on runners.
“There are quite a few athletes who are currently using beetroot juice…I’ve used it many times,” Boorsma explained to At Guelph. “The main effect that athletes are most interested in is that, following nitrate supplementation with beetroot juice, you have a reduction in the amount of oxygen required to run or cycle at any given speed.”
Boorsma focused specifically on more experienced and high-level athletes and for that particular demographic, the results may come with slight disappointment. “On a group basis, there was no improvement in performance or a reduction in the oxygen consumption,” said Boorsma.
This would lead one to believe that the benefits of nitrates in beetroot juice are most beneficial to the lesser-trained athlete.
However, beetroot juice still has many properties that are beneficial to the everyday person, be it an elite athlete or an average Joe. Beets are loaded with a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains, which have been shown to provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support.
If you are disinterested in the beet as a nutritional supplement or a means to upping your athleticism, praise the beet for its ability to melt ice. That’s right, the City of Toronto adds a beet concoction to the salt they spray on roads to melt ice when the temperatures drop below -20 C; the beet allows the salt to work until -32 C.
“When it starts getting really cold, that’s where the sugar beet really shines,” said Tony Vaccari of Eco Solutions, which manufactures the organic product the city uses. “We don’t like saying it’s better for the environment than salt, but you can drink our product.”