Beetroot can make you run faster

YOU might think of beetroot as an oldfashioned, earthy-tasting root vegetable – which it is. But drinking it (you can buy concentrated beetroot juice in bottles) or eating it as part of a salad can have impressive effects on your body. It has been shown to improve physical and cognitive performance and keep the heart healthy, and may even help you run faster.

Beetroot’s intense colour is a tell-tale sign of powerful antioxidants called betalains, which help fight the ravages of age and have been shown (in lab studies) to kill colon cancer cells.

The key is that beetroot is very rich in nitrates. They have acquired a bad name because they are often added to preserved meats such as bacon, ham and salami, and studies show that eating too much of these could increase bowel cancer risks.

But when we consume nitrate-rich vegetables such as beetroot, something remarkable happens. Bacteria living in our mouths change that nitrate into a chemical called a nitrite.

This is then changed by other body processes into nitric oxide, which helps to dilate blood vessels and increase blood flow to muscles, organs and the brain.

Viagra works by triggering the release of nitric oxide. It is no coincidence that the Romans believed beetroot juice was a powerful aphrodisiac. Andy Jones, professor of applied physiology at the University of Exeter, has studied the impact of beetroot on endurance and sporting performance.

He asked a group of men aged 19 to 38 to drink either beetroot juice or a placebo (blackcurrant juice) for six days before completing a series of gruelling tests on an exercise bike. Then they swapped over. When the group drank beetroot juice, they were able to cycle for longer than the placebo group.

The beneficial effect of beetroot is most pronounced if you favour high-intensity workouts. Prof Jones says: ‘We found volunteers eating beetroot a couple of hours before an intense bout of exercise were able to keep going for as much as 16 per cent longer than those who didn’t eat beetroot. As a result of our study, beetroot was a massive hit at the 2012 Olympics in London. Nearly every athlete was sipping beetroot juice.’

The beetroot-fuelled increase in nitric oxide not only means that blood vessels dilate, allowing more oxygen to reach muscles, but also makes muscles more efficient. The same beneficial effect seems to apply to your heart and brain.

Beetroot juice also has the potential to cut the risk of our biggest killer, strokes, by causing blood vessels to widen and allow more blood flow to our tissues.

A few years ago, I took part in a small study in which volunteers with raised blood pressure spent a few weeks feasting on a diet rich in beetroot. Average blood pressure in the group fell, with a reduction in their risk of stroke and heart attack of about ten per cent. Prof Jones recommends eating beetroot two to three hours before you hit the gym, to give bacteria in our mouths time to process the nitrate into nitrite.

(Be warned, though: beetroot will turn your wee pink!)