BEETS for heart health and performance

BEET-eautiful

Today I am going to tell you about beet juice and the awesome health and performance benefits. I first started hearing about beet juice through my endurance clients and other sports nutrition professionals. The research is a fairly new introduction to the benefits of beet juice on performance, but here is what we know so far:

• Increased reaction time during high endurance activity (One particular study with significant results gave athletes between 4-5oz beet juice daily and an additional 4.6oz shot hours before an event)
  
• Reduced oxygen "cost" on muscles, allowing an athlete to do more work in a short amount of time.. no matter the rate of oxygen consumption. 
• The reasoning? When you are working out hard you have less oxygen getting to your brain due to your blood vessels contracting from lack of carbon dioxide. The nitrates in beet juice is converted to nitric acid and then to nitric oxide- dilating your vessels... letting oxygen flow more freely. 
  

So..ya, you're not an athlete... how could this be beneficial for you? A new article the Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition sent me explains it beautifully. Read Beetroot juice benefits patients with heart failure and see what all the hype is about. In a nut shell: 

• Nitric acid dilates blood vessels (allowing better blood flow and more oxygen circulation). What also dilates blood vessels? Hypertension meds. 
• As you get older simple tasks can cause more fatigue. More oxygen flow gives your muscle more power, making what was once simple, well simple again. 

I recommend mixing it with a smoothie daily. Bottoms up!