By
now, I assume you’ve all heard about Lance Armstrong who was recharged with doping last week and is currently suspended
from all athletic events including Ironman and is threatened with having his
seven Tour De France victories stripped (Armstrong qualified earlier in the
season for the Ironman World Championship in Kona.) Rather than going into a rant
about if I think he did it or not, the ethics behind doping, how this helps or
hurts the sport, or any of the other mumbo-jumbo that is currently trending,
I’d rather offer an alternative to people looking to get that extra little push
from their training that is not only legal but is also incredibly healthy.
(Side
note: Regardless of what he did nearly a decade ago, his performances in recent
Ironman competitions have been stunning, and Armstrong credits his new
experiments with plant-based veganism for much of his recent ability.)
Several
new studies over the past few years have found that a diet high in beets can
actually do amazing things for athletes, including drastically improving
performance. In the past I’ve written about how plant-based diets can lower
inflammation allowing an increase in training, as well as increased energy and
stamina all while decreasing your risk of many lethal diseases. But the power
of beets seem to leave even these attributes in the dust.
In
2009 a study found that beet juice has the ability to dramatically lower the
muscles need for oxygen. The reason athletes train is to strengthen their heart
and lungs. As this happens the body becomes more efficient, delivering more
oxygen throughout their system allowing their muscles to perform more work.
However, no matter how good of an athlete a person is, once the oxygen reaches
the muscles, it does the same amount of work. Superior athletes only advantage
is the ability to pump more oxygen to their muscles more quickly and
efficiently. This can be compared to a car. A sports car and a normal sedan
both use fuel exactly the same, however the sports car will be fast simply
because it has a stronger engine which can use the fuel more effectively.
However the fuel is doing the same amount of work in both the sports car and
the sedan.
At
least that is what traditional sports science always told us.
A
new study took eight cyclists and measured their oxygen levels while cycling on
an indoor trainer. They did the test at several times, including before and
after taking placebos, as well as after having consumed two glasses of beet
juice for several days. After drinking beet juice for a few days in a row, the
cyclists were able to perform the same amount of work with 19% less oxygen. When
they were cycling at full pace to exhaustion, they were able to increase their
endurance to fatigue by an astounding 16%.
It
is worth mentioning that before this experiment, there was no known food, drug,
or steroid that could actually increase energy extraction from oxygen. However, it appears that beet juice made
their bodies significantly more efficient.
Why
Beets? Well, besides being packed with macro, micro, and phyto-nutrients, beets
offer one of the most concentrated sources of nitrates. When compared to berry
juice (also packed with goodness, absent the nitrate) performance after beet
consumption improved while the berry juice did nothing to affect normal
performance.
This
is where it gets a bit complex, so hold on to your hats. After consumption,
nitrate is absorbed in our stomachs and then actively pumped back into out
mouth through our salivary glands. This is done because our body knows we have
special bacteria living on our tongues which takes the nitrates and converts
them into nitrites which are then re-swallowed, re-absorbed and finally sent
off to the cells in our muscles. Here the nitrites are converted yet again into
nitrate-oxide. This nitrate-oxide then helps take the place of oxygen in the
muscles, therefore requiring less oxygen to perform more work. Because the
nitrate needs to be absorbed by bacteria on the tongue using antiseptic
mouthwash or excessive spitting after absorbing the nitrates was found to
cancel the benefits.
So
if you are preparing for marathon season, have a big cycling event or racing in
a triathlon, instead of worrying about carbo-loading before your race, perhaps you should consider a diet high in
nitrates, including beets, and dark leafy-greens such as kale, collards and arugula.
But be warned, while nitrates found naturally in fruits and vegetables can
increase performance, the nitrates added to cure meat (think bacon and hotdogs)
are actually highly potent carcinogens that are linked to all types of cancers.
This is because instead of turning into nitrate-oxide as they do when nitrates
are ingested from beets and dark greens, they convert into nitrosamines. As it
turns out, this is because meat is void of vitamin C, which blocks the
conversion of nitrates to nitrosamines. As such, the nitrates found in bacon
and hotdogs convert into the harmful nitrosamines during the processing stage, making
all cured meats harmful regardless of what they are eaten with; while veggies
continue to have beneficial affects. As such, perhaps you should consider
trading your next BLT for an arugula and beet salad or simply add those
ingredients to your smoothies!
(my favorite way to add beets to my diet is by
peeling and shredding them)
Besides
running a bit faster and a bit longer, beets have other advantages that make
them beneficial to everyone’s diet. According to Dr. Mikhail Tombak, a
scientist and longevity expert, beets have also been shown to that improve
“blood structure and cure diseases of the circulatory system, large intestine,
and digestive system." Tombak also says beet juice helps dissolve liver,
kidney and bladder stones.
So what is the take from all of this?
Well, athletes will see their performance improve if they ingest a large amount
of nitrite-rich foods before they race. Perhaps I am bit of quixotic but I’d
like to think Lance was simply benefitting from the power of the beet.
These were the
most relevant sources considered:
Schorah CJ, Sobala
GM, Sanderson M, Collis N, Primrose JN. Gastric juice ascorbic acid: effects of
disease and implications for gastric carcinogenesis. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991
Jan;53(1 Suppl):287S-293S.
Webb AJ, Patel N, Loukogeorgakis S, Okorie M, Aboud Z, Misra S, Rashid
R, Miall P, Deanfield J, Benjamin N, MacAllister R, Hobbs AJ, Ahluwalia A.
Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective, and antiplatelet properties of
dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite. Hypertension. 2008
Mar;51(3):784-90. Epub 2008 Feb 4.
Eaton SB, Eaton SB 3rd. Paleolithic vs. modern diets--selected
pathophysiological implications. Eur J Nutr. 2000 Apr;39(2):67-70.
Vermeer IT, Moonen EJ, Dallinga JW, Kleinjans JC, van Maanen JM. Effect
of ascorbic acid and green tea on endogenous formation of
N-nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine in humans. Mutat Res. 1999 Jul
16;428(1-2):353-61.
Liu CY, Hsu
YH, Wu MT, Pan PC, Ho CK, Su L, Xu X, Li Y, Christiani DC; Kaohsiung Leukemia
Research Group. Cured meat, vegetables, and bean-curd foods in relation to
childhood acute leukemia risk: a population based case-control study. BMC
Cancer. 2009 Jan 13;9:15.
Crinnion WJ.
Organic foods contain higher levels of certain nutrients, lower levels of
pesticides, and may provide health benefits for the consumer. Altern Med Rev.
2010 Apr;15(1):4-12.
