Soldato
Just watched an experiment on TV ('Food Unwrapped') where they reckon Beetroot juice is good for endurance. Woman presenter went to a gym and shown two identical bottles by a sports scientist. One filled with the juice and one filled with a placebo (beetroot juice with its nitrate removed).
She was given one of the bottles of the juice to swallow (without knowing if she had the placebo or not) and then wait two hours for the nitrate to convert to nitrite in her body. Each bottle contains the equivalent of 6 medium sized beetroots. Then onto an exercise bike doing a consistent speed of 80 reps a minute with the resistance increasing, going to exhaustion. She was exhausted and stopped after 10 minutes. Next day, drank the other bottle, did 30 seconds longer and didn't feel the exhaustion till those last 30 seconds. Turns out that was the bottle with the nitrate.
What do you reckon? 30 seconds isn't much and maybe she just happened to feel a bit more energetic on that day regardless of the juice. Or is nitrate really beneficial? You can see it here from 42.31
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/food-unwrapped/on-demand/59510-014
She was given one of the bottles of the juice to swallow (without knowing if she had the placebo or not) and then wait two hours for the nitrate to convert to nitrite in her body. Each bottle contains the equivalent of 6 medium sized beetroots. Then onto an exercise bike doing a consistent speed of 80 reps a minute with the resistance increasing, going to exhaustion. She was exhausted and stopped after 10 minutes. Next day, drank the other bottle, did 30 seconds longer and didn't feel the exhaustion till those last 30 seconds. Turns out that was the bottle with the nitrate.
What do you reckon? 30 seconds isn't much and maybe she just happened to feel a bit more energetic on that day regardless of the juice. Or is nitrate really beneficial? You can see it here from 42.31
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/food-unwrapped/on-demand/59510-014