It seems a most unlikely performance
booster but new research suggests beetroot could be the secret to track
success at this year’s Olympics.
Scientists have discovered athletes who eat baked beetroot before a race run faster than their rivals. The
purple root vegetable contains high levels of chemicals called
nitrates, which have been shown to boost exercise performance.
Researchers at St Louis University in
the US recruited 11 fit and healthy men and women and got them to twice
run five kilometres on a treadmill.
Before the first run, the volunteers consumed a portion of baked beetroot just over an hour before hitting the treadmill. Before the second run, they ate an
equivalent amount of cranberry relish, chosen because it has a similar
calorific content to beetroot but without the same nitrate levels.
Source - Daily Mail
