Effects of Dietary Nitrate Supplementation Over Four Weeks on Maximum Oxygen Consumption in Recreational Runners: A Pilot Study.
Nutritional aids to improve exercise performance have become popular. One of the newest is dietary nitrate, often administered as a drink known as beetroot juice (BR). This has led many athletes, both elite and recreational, to consume BR prior to competition or physical activity. However, the results have been inconsistent and indicate that several factors need to be considered.
Elite athletes, their coaches as well as exercise physiologists and sports scientists are constantly looking for ways to enhance performance. But even recreational “athletes” who may simply
want to finish a race1 are often seeking ways to improve training and recovery. Nutritional aids have become popular and one of the newest ones is dietary nitrate, often administered as a drink
known as beetroot juice (BR). The high nitrate concentration of beetroot juice is thought to serve as a precursor for nitric oxide (NO) production.
This would be an additional source to the endogenous pathway during which L-arginine is oxidized in a reaction catalyzed by the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) family. Nitrate (NO3-) is found in all vegetables and is especially abundant in leafy greens and beetroot.3 After ingestion the NO3
– is reduced to nitrite (NO2 -) by anaerobic bacteria in the oral cavity by the action of nitrate reductase enzymes, then to nitric oxide (NO) in the stomach. It is well established that nitrate or BR consumption can significantly increase plasma nitrite concentration (both as a substrate for and a biomarker of nitric oxide production).
Sport Exerc Med Open J. 2017; 3(3): 68-73. doi: 10.17140/SEMOJ-3-151
