Exercise and athletic performance

Beetroot juice supplementation has been shown to improve muscle oxygenation during exercise, suggesting that increased dietary nitrate intake has the potential to enhance exercise tolerance during long term endurance exercise. Quality of life for those with cardiovascular, respiratory, or metabolic diseases, who find the activities of daily living physically difficult because of lack of oxygenation, could be improved. Beetroot juice improved performance by 2.8% (11 seconds) in a 4 km bicycle time trial and by 2.7% (45 seconds) in 16.1 km time trial.