Beet Juice Boosts Athletic Performance by up to 16 Percent

Skep T. Cal wrote:

In a related study, blackcurrant cordial was found to reduce performance versus a placebo of water.

Seriously, how can these people claim their "placebo" is performance-neutral?

Agreed. A cordial is normally a liqueur, and alcohol in the bloodstream lowers your ability to metabolize oxygen effectively. But a cordial can also be a medicinal drink, and the authors of the study don't mention in the newspaper interview what it was.

My opinion is to quit fixating on nutrients apart from the foods their found in and instead simply eat the foods that contain the nutrients. A few raw or cooked beets a week is a good thing, but looking for the "magic bullet" (beet JUICE, in this instance) just complicates life.

I made beet puree that lasted about a week. I started with about 6 beets. sliced them. Put them in with a bit of oil, garlic, and spices. Cooked them a while and tried to eat them and nearly gagged. Poured them into a huge bowl and pureed them with cream and butter. Final result was like a soup. After adding honey it was pretty good.

I tried the protocal for a week. I peed and pooped red after the first day and for the whole week. Can't say I felt any effects. So who knows. It was messy.

Tried it wrote:

I made beet puree that lasted about a week. I started with about 6 beets. sliced them. Put them in with a bit of oil, garlic, and spices. Cooked them a while and tried to eat them and nearly gagged. Poured them into a huge bowl and pureed them with cream and butter. Final result was like a soup. After adding honey it was pretty good.

I tried the protocal for a week. I peed and pooped red after the first day and for the whole week. Can't say I felt any effects. So who knows. It was messy.

check your iron / ferritin level, if you really want this 1% of performance. Red urine after beets are symptom of iron deficiency (not 100% accurate, but it's worth checking).

anyway

just ate 2 raw beets :D they got tons of dietary fiber, yummy.

It sounds like the new fad food. For a while it was the pomegranate, then it was the acia berry, now its the beet! Next its going to be the star fruit. I'm hoping on the band wagon and going to whole foods tonight to get some. Have you ever ran really well off crap food? I ran my best marathon off strawberry poptarts and a redbull. I ran my best 2 mile off a big mac the night before. I ran my best mile off a chipotle burrito. While I like to experiment with different foods I would never use what I eat as an excuse for how well I preform (as long as I'm simply just 'eating'), its all in the training.

"If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn." Quentin Cassidy

Why was the "placebo" black currant cocktail. I doubt that black currant cocktail has been established as having no effect on performance. The headline could just as easily read "black currant cocktail reduces performance 14%" (it wouldn't be 16%, gotta do 16/(100+16)).

Just eat the canned stuff including the juice.

cronin_burger wrote:

It sounds like the new fad food. For a while it was the pomegranate, then it was the acia berry, now its the beet! Next its going to be the star fruit. I'm hoping on the band wagon and going to whole foods tonight to get some. Have you ever ran really well off crap food? I ran my best marathon off strawberry poptarts and a redbull. I ran my best 2 mile off a big mac the night before. I ran my best mile off a chipotle burrito. While I like to experiment with different foods I would never use what I eat as an excuse for how well I preform (as long as I'm simply just 'eating'), its all in the training.

"If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn." Quentin Cassidy

Yep it'll burn all right. It will burn toxic fumes in your body leaving your insides so f***ed up you will begin to age rapidly. Just because you ran fast does not mean you are healthy.

Post Hippie wrote:

I would recommend NOT eating fresh beets if your goal is to test the performance claims of the study. First, you would have to eat almost two f***ing pounds of beets, and second, a fresh, uncooked beet is rock hard. Good luck eating two pounds of beets a thin slice at a time every day for five days.

We obviously need the raw foods guy who claimed he ate 20-30 bananas at a time for this. He should be able to handle two pounds of raw beets, no problem.

To be completely honest, running fast is all that a lot of people on this site are concerned about. We'd still run 120-mile weeks if it meant our hips would explode at 50.

Will beets improve your performance if you eat them while on a plane taking off from a treadmill?

Beet Juice Mix?....

http://www.amazon.com/Pines-International-Juice-Powder-powder/dp/B0014AYO8O

cronin_burger wrote:

It sounds like the new fad food. For a while it was the pomegranate, then it was the acia berry, now its the beet! Next its going to be the star fruit. I'm hoping on the band wagon and going to whole foods tonight to get some. Have you ever ran really well off crap food? I ran my best marathon off strawberry poptarts and a redbull. I ran my best 2 mile off a big mac the night before. I ran my best mile off a chipotle burrito. While I like to experiment with different foods I would never use what I eat as an excuse for how well I preform (as long as I'm simply just 'eating'), its all in the training.

"If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn." Quentin Cassidy

see... now compare your results to native Kenyans. They eat only natural, organic food.

"Hurrr durrr they are another race, they have genetic predispositions..."

A guy from Poland visited Kenya training camp few months ago. Big deal, it's one of fastests guys here so every running portal posted about this. 4 weeks, he swapped from his "healthy" polish diet of "elite" runners with alot of meat, artifical witamins, iron pills to crappy diet of poor Africans without any kind of supplements and no meat at all.

before / after

wBC 3,6 / 5,2

RBC 4,8 / 5,3

Iron 53 / 330 (might be printing error)

ferritin 22 / 62

HGB 15,2 / 16,6

while some changes can be explained by altitute training, it's clear that he went from borderline iron deficiency to high iron saturation AND icreased number of red blood cells.

Go ahead, keep eating sh** and running sh**

and crying aloud about how East Africans are genetically enchanced.

tomtom wrote:

see... now compare your results to native Kenyans. They eat only natural, organic food.

"Hurrr durrr they are another race, they have genetic predispositions..."

A guy from Poland visited Kenya training camp few months ago. Big deal, it's one of fastests guys here so every running portal posted about this. 4 weeks, he swapped from his "healthy" polish diet of "elite" runners with alot of meat, artifical witamins, iron pills to crappy diet of poor Africans without any kind of supplements and no meat at all.

before / after

wBC 3,6 / 5,2

RBC 4,8 / 5,3

Iron 53 / 330 (might be printing error)

ferritin 22 / 62

HGB 15,2 / 16,6

while some changes can be explained by altitute training, it's clear that he went from borderline iron deficiency to high iron saturation AND icreased number of red blood cells.

Go ahead, keep eating sh** and running sh**

and crying aloud about how East Africans are genetically enchanced.

Tell us more. What was included in the "poor African" diet?

TomTom wrote:

RANDOM ANECDOTE WITH NO SUPPORTING EVIDENCE!

deciliter this, milligram that!

HURR DURR!!!

F*** YOU AND YOUR SHIT AMERICAN DIET, YOU DORITO EATING MOUTH-BREATHERS!!!

The study is a marketing scam.

Commercial beet juice is dead, there is nothing good in it, and it is not beneficial.

You would get a highly concentrated product by drinking straight beet juice, not recommended.

Beat jews?

tomtom wrote:

while some changes can be explained by altitute training, it's clear that he went from borderline iron deficiency to high iron saturation AND icreased number of red blood cells.

If I run you over in my car while you're eating an ice cream cone, and then tell you "sure, the car probably had something to do with it, but you were also eating ice cream so that was just as dangerous", don't you think that would sound a little strange?

Rolo Tony wrote:

Tell us more. What was included in the "poor African" diet?

basically you can find description of their diet here:

Major difference is protein/fat/carbohydrates ratio, for Kenya runners it's like 10/10/80, for rest of the world - probably around 33/33/33. In Kenya almost 90% of calories comes from plant foods, so they are almost vegans. Typical USA citizen eat 10 times more meat than Kenya runner. All foods are organic, so they are very rich in minerals and vitamins (compared to food you can buy in USA and Europe).

It's hard for me to describe eating habits in training camp where this runner gained so much iron during 4 weeks, because original article is in Polish and is full of "strange" words, as you clearly see English is not my first language :D

but I will try:

there were enzymes detected in food - they works just like our own digestive enzymes

there was rodanid detected in some foods (very small quantites, but still, and it's up to you if you want to find what rodanid means in english)

some foods reduced level of lactic acid

Anyway, Polish team is full of idiots. They have it - difference in carbo/fat/protein ratio, difference in animal food uptake, yet they ignored these facts and instead analyzed for presence of rodanid and enzymes.

It's like asking them "why Ferrari is faster than bicycle", and receiving analyze of their colour as answer. Maybe Ferrari can deflect sun rays so it doesn't need so much cooling?

any more info out there on this?