For a while, it really looked as though beet juice would beat the odds. Most hot new performance-boosting supplements, even if they claim to be backed by science, don’t hold up to scrutiny. But after making an initial splash in 2009 thanks to high-profile adherents like marathon star Paula Radcliffe, the first wave of high-quality studies supported the idea that beet juice really does improve endurance.
After a decade, though, the bloom had partly faded. There were concerns about its gastrointestinal effects (much as there were with baking soda, another popular endurance-booster), questions about the appropriate dosage, and rising suspicion that beet juice only worked in untrained or recreational athletes but not in serious competitors. These days I rarely hear runners talking about beet juice, and the flow of new studies has tailed off. But a new review takes a fresh look at the accumulated evidence, and concludes that we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the potential benefits of the juice.
Why Beet Juice Might Help
The key ingredient in beet juice, from an endurance perspective, is nitrate. Once…
