Beetroot for Endurance or Beetroot Schmeetroot?

Scott W. Tunis MD FACS |

You have heard about athletes taking beetroot to increase endurance. Some swear by it. So what’s the deal, does it really work?

At Runners Essentials, we prefer to look at real science for our answers.

By real science we mean placebo-controlled, double-blind human clinical trials, with statistically significant results, employing the generally accepted methods of participant selection and data collection, that are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Whew! That’s a mouthful. Almost as tough as a mouthful of beets.

Needless to say, our threshold criteria for scientific validity rules out any “evidence” that might come from a Doctor of Thinkology who had an aura about beetroot after a coconut fell on his head. Don’t laugh, the supplement industry is permeated with nonsensical, smoke and mirrors “evidence” from sources with Crackerjack prize credentials.

A review article is when a group of investigators look at ALL the previous studies that have been published on a particular subject, eliminate the studies that are flawed, and then see what the legitimate studies conclude.

The largest such review on Beetroot was published in Nutrients in 2017. It is titled:

“Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review.”

The authors found 210 previous studies on Beetroot in athletes. They eliminated all but 23 studies as being flawed in design, subject selection, data collection, or analysis.

23 studies is still a lot. (Real studies are hard to do).

What was the conclusion of the Review?

Here’s what they said:

“The available results (from the 23 studies) suggest that supplementation with beetroot juice can improve cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes by increasing efficiency, which improves performance at various distances, increases time to exhaustion at submaximal intensities, and may improve the cardiorespiratory performance at anaerobic threshold intensities and maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max).

Uh… that’s a yes, by the way.

From real science.

So if you don’t feel like lugging around funny looking glass bottles filled with tasty (?) red sludge…

Or plastic jars of messy red powder that won’t dissolve…

You can get your daily Beetroot in Runners Essentials Daily Vitamin Formula.

We put it in there for a reason.

Actually, 23 reasons.

Specifically targeted for runners and endurance athletes. Beetroot, and way more.

Learn more about Runners Essentials Daily Vitamin Formula.