17-Dec-2010
Beetroot juice has been one of the biggest stories
in sports science over the past year after researchers
at the University of Exeter found it enables
people to exercise for up to 16% longer. The
startling results have led to a host of athletes
– from Premiership footballers to professional
cyclists – looking into its potential uses.
A
new piece of research by the university in
conjunction with the Peninsula College of
Medicine and Dentistry has revealed the physiological
effects of drinking beetroot juice could help
a much wider range of people.
In
the latest study, published in the Journal
of Applied Physiology, the researchers
looked at low intensity exercise and found
that test subjects used less oxygen while
walking – effectively reducing the effort
it took to walk by 12%.
Katie
Lansley, a PhD student from the university's
Sport and Health Sciences department and lead
author of the study, said: "As you get older,
or if you have conditions which affect your
cardiovascular system, the amount of oxygen
you can take in to use during exercise drops
considerably. This means that, for some people,
even simple tasks like walking may not be
manageable.
"What
we've seen in this study is that beetroot
juice can actually reduce the amount of oxygen
you need to perform even low-intensity exercise.
In principle, this effect could help people
do things they wouldn't otherwise be able
to do."
When
consumed, beetroot juice has two marked physiological
effects. Firstly, it widens blood vessels,
reducing blood pressure and allowing more
blood flow. Secondly, it affects muscle tissue,
reducing the amount of oxygen needed by muscles
during activity. The combined effects have
a significant impact on performing physical
tasks, whether it involves low-intensity or
high-intensity effort.
So
far the research on the impacts of beetroot
juice has only been carried out on younger
people who are in good health, but the researchers
believe there is no reason why the effects
of beetroot juice wouldn't help others.
"While
we haven't yet measured the effects on the
elderly or those with heart or lung conditions,
there is the potential for a positive impact
in these populations which we intend to go
on and investigate further," Katie Lansley
added.
Beetroot
juice contains high levels of nitrate. The
latest study has proved that this is the key
ingredient which causes the increase in performance,
rather than any other component of the beetroot
juice.
Professor
Andy Jones, the senior scientist on the study and
a pioneer of research into beetroot juice, said: "In
this study, we were able to use - for the first time
- both normal beetroot juice and beetroot juice with
the nitrate filtered out. Test subjects didn't know
which one they were getting. The drinks both looked
and tasted exactly the same. Each time the normal,
nitrate-rich juice was used, we saw a marked improvement
in performance which wasn't there with the filtered
juice – so we know the nitrate is the active ingredient."
---------
The
research paper Dietary nitrate supplementation
reduces the O ‚ cost of walking and running:
a placebo controlled study is available to
view online as an article in press in the
Journal of Applied Physiology here:
http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/japplphysiol.01070.2010v1
James
White Drinks provided the beetroot juice for
this study, including the nitrate filtered
placebo version. You can find out more at
http://www.jameswhite.co.uk/
