@SarahLaverty @MaxinePhilavong
Do you have a link to the paper for this? I want to make sure that I didn’t misunderstand something from how the study was conducted.
From my understanding those with lower thresholds (fitness level) saw better outcomes from the juice.
Sarah is a wonderful interviewer. Something I would have liked to seen been asked is what his hypotheses might have been for increase shots of juice for those with higher base fitness.
Hey, @tfliteau!
Thank you so much for the positive and constructive feedback! Dr. Bailey may have answered this in an indirect way. Currently, the research suggests that above a certain level of fitness, the likelihood of seeing performance enhancing effects of nitrate rich beetroot supplementation is decreased. I am not certain if scientists have been able to quantify this fitness level yet. More research is needed to understand this relationship and why and when there are individual differences.
Sure, here is a copy of the paper!
This study did not directly investigate the relationship between fitness level and the impact of nitrate supplementation. Instead, Dr. Bailey and his colleagues focused on whether the effects of nitrate-rich beetroot supplementation would be impacted by oxygen concentration. Their results suggest that there may be a relationship between oxygen concentration, exercise tolerance, and tissue oxygenation.
The results from this study may point towards some of the reasons we see these differences in the performance-enhancing effects of nitrate-rich beetroot supplementation between athletes of different training statuses.
I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions for me!
Can you brush your teeth before beet juice or not at all?
I read somewhere that organic beetroot has less nitrogen than conventionally grown beets. Is that so, would it then make sense to get non organically grown beetroot?
I thought this pod and all these Science of Getting Faster podcasts have been brilliant.
Here’s my email to Beetelite regarding brushing teeth:
My hardest ride of the week is the early morning Saturday group ride/race. I brush my teeth at 6am, eat breakfast soon after, then drink Beetelite no later than 7:15am. The ride starts at 7:30 but things don’t properly kickoff until around 8:00.
Should I drink Beetelite first thing and brush my teeth right before I leave the house, instead? Or is it not interfering?
Cheers
Sent from my shoe phone
And their response:
There should be no interference we just recommend not using mouthwash for about 30 minutes before or after drinking the Beetelite.
*Both my email and their response are partials, I didn’t include the fluff and niceties here.
Did you try? I just hate all these nitrogen donors ( eg beet root, citrulline 
), they make me nauseous. As an alternative I am considering ordering e251 (food grade sodium nitrate) or maybe just write myself a prescription of isosorbidenitrate or nitroglycerine
Really interesting podcast, I learned a fair amount from it and not all beetroot related!
First off, I have to feel sorry for the test subjects, sounds like they were basically riding a ramp test, especially feel for those that got the placebo in a low oxygen environment… didn’t sound like fun.
I guess what Im not clear on, in terms of using beetroot juice as a performance enhancer, is whether it is beneficial for me to take it before hard training, such as threshold or Vo2 max to increase the work & intensity I am able to complete, to provide a greater adaptation. Or, before a hard endurance race (my A race) or both?
There was a TR podcast a few years ago that said “coffee or beetroot, choose one because they cancel each other out”. They also said you had to consume a massive amount of beetroot. Has that advice changed? I mentioned that above, but no one commented.
I don’t think that’s really been answered in any studies. My takeaway is this:
Acute beetroot supplementation pre-workout is unlikely to do much if anything. Caffeine is way better for this for most people. Decent chance that even if beetroot two hours before helps, it wouldn’t stack with caffeine.
Chronic/long-term beetroot supplementation has significant evidence to support it. Protocol is something like 7 days of supplementation prior to event.
It can be hard to get enough. 6-8oz of beet juice (Lakewood organic for example) should do it. Regular beetroot powder, you’d need a ridiculous amount. Most shots are enough but expensive. Chews/concentrated powders like BeetElite, possibly but I don’t think quite enough.
No reason not to drink 6-8oz of beet juice every evening, or at least for a week prior to an event. Still do caffeine in the mornings/pre-ride.
I can think of one
Seriously though, thanks for your thoughts. I just don’t have the time for all the long podcasts anymore, so I appreciate the overview.
I bulk buy BeetElite so it’s net $26/canister. That’s 20 days of maximum serving. I end up doing a half scoop some rest days and forget some days. So a canister lasts between 20-30 days.
I don’t mind the taste and I even swish each swig around a bit to help the nitrate/nitrite/nitric oxide process since saliva plays a role in that (it’s in most pods about beets).
I feel like it helps and I don’t get enough dark coloured veg in my diet so it’s decent health thing, too.
I like beetroot powder and the taste but if I forget I took it sometimes I scare myself the following morning afraid something’s wrong with my bowels 