nutrition - beet juice and beta alanine
Beetroot Juice
Beetroot juice, which comes from a red beetroot, is a root vegetable. Beetroot juice is an excellent source of phytochemicals, which have immense health benefits on humans, showing improvement in several clinical and pathological outcomes (Mirmiran et al., 2020; Phytochemical 2016). Beetroot juice has shown to help with diabetes and insulin homeostasis, by postponing the postprandial glycemic response, decreasing the blood glucose peak (Mirmiran et al., 2020). This means that after one consumes a meal, the body's natural response is to increase blood glucose and blood sugar levels. However, beetroot juice aids in lowering and maintaining healthy levels. Beetroot juice has also been shown to lower blood pressure, improve vascular function, and renal health. The effect that beetroot juice has on lowering blood pressure seems to help hypertensive and overweight adults as well (Mirmiran et al., 2020). Additionally, beetroot juice is an excellent source of nitrate oxide, which can greatly improve cardiac health, and aid in better exercise performance. This happens by lowering the oxygen cost during exercise (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018; Mirmiran et al., 2020). Nitrate oxide has the capability of producing more ATP per the amount of oxygen consumed, because there is an increase in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation efficiency, which increases the phosphate oxygen ratio. What’s more, the ingestion of dietary nitrate (from beetroot) can have positive effects on basal mitochondrial function as well (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018). Jeukendrup & Gleeson (2018) cite a study from Wylie, Kelly, et al. (2013) that analyzed dose responses to beetroot juice. They found that subjects' exercise tolerance was improved with 6-8 mmol of nitrate (500ml of beetroot juice). However, there was no effect with 4 mmol, and no additional benefit with doses over 8 mmol. They concluded that beetroot juice should be ingested 2-3 hours before exercise and for several days to establish a more long term effect (Wylie, Kelly et al., 2013, as cited by Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018).
Because beetroot juice has proven to aid in exercise performance, more studies have been executed to show what types of exercise that beetroot juice has the largest effect on. Jeukendrup & Gleeson (2018) state that beetroot juice can enhance endurance performance sometimes. However, there are no current studies proving that beetroot juice can help with prolonged endurance performance (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018). However, beetroot juice can increase blood flow, due to the increase in nitrate oxide, which is specific to type II muscle fibers. Therefore, this could lead to an increased capacity for strength in type II muscle fibers (Dominguez et al., 2018). With that said, there are several studies that show improvement in high intensity exercise, by lowering the oxygen cost of exercise. An article from Dominguez et al. (2018) discusses the effects of how single doses of beetroot juice can help enhance intermittent high intensity efforts with short rest periods. The study analyzed how beetroot juice improved muscle power output and muscular fatigue. Also, as mentioned before, more ATP being produced could help delay depletion during repetitive efforts (Dominguez et al., 2018). Another study from Behrens et al. (2020) looks at exercise for performance in individuals suffering from obesity. Exercise can be a daunting task for this population, due to higher blood pressure/heart rate, additional pressure on the joints, and lower aerobic capacity to name a few. The study placed the patients in two groups - one group consuming beetroot juice and the other group consuming a placebo. The beetroot juice saw greater exercise efficiency in submaximal exercise and time-to-exhaustion. Therefore, beetroot juice would be an excellent supplement for obese individuals to aid in exercise performance (Behrens et al., 2020). There are generally no negative side effects of beetroot juice. However, Zamani et al. (2021) states that when taken in larger doses above the recommended daily amount, it can cause an endogenous formation of N-nitroso compounds, and produce several adverse effects.
Beta-Alanine
Beta-alanine is a nonessential amino acid, produced naturally in the body, and can also be taken as a dietary supplement (Ostfeld & Hoffman, 2023). Carnosine is a dipeptide that is synthesized by beta-alanine and L-histidine. Beta-alanine supplementation has been shown to increase muscle carnosine content, which can enhance intramuscular hydrogen buffering. This effect can greatly enhance high-intensity performance in athletes and untrained individuals (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018). Hobsen et al. (2012) show that beta-alanine can have an ergogenic effect during high-intensity exercise lasting between 1-4 minutes because of the intramuscular buffering of hydrogen ions (Hobsen et al., 2012). Additionally, Jeukendrup & Gleeson (2018) state that exercises which stimulate glycolysis and lactic acid production can benefit from beta-alanine supplements. Jeukendrup & Gleeson (2018) also suggest a dosage of 3.2-6.4 grams/day over a range of 4-10 weeks. It should be noted that this dosage should be split up into smaller doses of .4-1.6 grams, throughout the day. This can accomplish a 60-80% increase in muscle carnosine contents (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018). Jeukendrup & Gleeson (2018) cited a study from Derave et al. (2007), and analyzed a dosage of 4.8 grams of beta-alanine each day on 400m runners. They saw improved fatigue resistance in repeated bouts to exhaustion. However, the 400m race time remained unaffected (Derave et al., 2007, as cited by Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018). Furthermore, beta-alanine has proven to increase resistance training performance in team sport athletes (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018).
Another study from Hobson et al. (2012) saw increases in exercise capacity. They analyzed the effects of the supplement in different timed intervals of exercise. Exercise lasting between 50-240 seconds and over 240 seconds improved with beta-alanine supplement. However, there was no improvement seen with exercise lasting less than 60 seconds (Hobson et al., 2012). Therefore, beta-alanine seems to be best consumed by middle distance athletes (400 meter runners), gymnasts, 100m swimmers, or tennis players. Lastly, beta-alanine has shown to cause paresthesia, which can cause tingling sensations on the skin and mild flushing, but only when taken in large doses. Therefore, it is recommended to be taken in smaller slow release doses (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2018).
References
Behrens, C. E., Jr, Ahmed, K., Ricart, K., Linder, B., Fernández, J., Bertrand, B., Patel, R. P., & Fisher, G. (2020). Acute beetroot juice supplementation improves exercise tolerance and cycling efficiency in adults with obesity. Physiological Reports, 8(19), e14574. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14574
Domínguez, R., Maté-Muñoz, J. L., Cuenca, E., García-Fernández, P., Mata-Ordoñez, F., Lozano-Estevan, M. C., Veiga-Herreros, P., da Silva, S. F., & Garnacho-Castaño, M. V. (2018). Effects of beetroot juice supplementation on intermittent high-intensity exercise efforts. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15, 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0204-9
Hobson, R. M., Saunders, B., Ball, G., Harris, R. C., & Sale, C. (2012). Effects of β-alanine supplementation on exercise performance: a meta-analysis. Amino Acids, 43(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-011-1200-z
Jeukendrup, A. E., & Gleeson, M. (2018). Sport Nutrition (3rd ed.)
Mirmiran, P., Houshialsadat, Z., Gaeini, Z., Bahadoran, Z., & Azizi, F. (2020). Functional properties of beetroot (Beta vulgaris) in management of cardio-metabolic diseases. Nutrition & Metabolism, 17, 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-019-0421-0
Ostfeld, I., & Hoffman, J. R. (2023). The Effect of β-Alanine Supplementation on performance, cognitive function and resiliency in soldiers. Nutrients, 15(4), 1039. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15041039
Zamani, H., de Joode, M. E. J. R., Hossein, I. J., Henckens, N. F. T., Guggeis, M. A., Berends, J. E., de Kok, T. M. C. M., & van Breda, S. G. J. (2021). The benefits and risks of beetroot juice consumption: a systematic review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 61(5), 788–804. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2020.1746629
