Beetroot juice

shedhead

Hi all,

Did anyone read the article in the Mail yesterday extolling the virtues of the above? Anyone have any experience using it ?

hopper1

Try a search of this section... been done a couple of times....

pst88

Old news
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12704658
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12641727

Rouge Penguin

I thought it was quite a good film, back in the day

term1te

It is claimed the benefit comes from the nitrates beetroot contains. But I thought a few years back we were all going to die because of he nitrates in our water supply due to muck spreading farmers? Blue baby syndrome or something?

So as a health conscious cyclist, should I avoid rural water supplies, but eat extra beetroot? Or jsut add a load of Miracle-gro to my Isostar? I guess the intense purple will cover any blue colouration.

glauciaregina9

I generally take this type of information with a large pinch of salt (metaphorically speaking, because apparently the current scientific thinking is that salt is bad for you...)

We're always hearing about how eating garlic, tomatoes, cherries, eggs, potatoes, etc, etc, bla, bla, in too big or too small quantities is good/bad/indifferent to your body...

I just think these (self-proclaimed?) 'experts' are just one big quango perpetually inventing 'research' just to keep themselves in work... one big job creation scheme :-)

Maybe, just maybe, if you're a highly trained athlete, at your peak, then all these little things might make a difference... or maybe not...

In the end, it's probably all just the placebo effect

evilollie

or skip taking evil coloured juice and just take a Nitric oxide supplement instead for the same effect

Anonymous

Or just eat lots of fruit and veg.

bigpikle

I eat massive quantities of fresh fruit and veg as part of a great diet, but tried some beetroot juice the other day after reading the research. Served cool it takes good to me, and as it adds an extra element to my diet (I really dont like and dont eat beetroot) I'm happy to try it for a while and see what happens. I'm drinking about 300ml or so a day and no purple side effects reported after 5 days

Have my first century sportive on Sunday and if there's any chance of a little benefit I'll give it a try!

lemon63

Where did you buy your beetroot juice from or did you juice up your own ?
I've looked in tescos & the like but none there.

Remember what happened to the kids who drank too much Sunny D, they turned orange. Perhaps we'll see a load of purple cyclists at the next sportives. :shock:

Guz

lemon63 wrote:

Perhaps we'll see a load of purple cyclists at the next sportives. :shock:

I'm always purple....that's what I get for riding up hills with wee skinny men.

In a total heterosexual fashion

Just the look of the stuff puts me of.

bigpikle

I bought the James White bottles from Holland & Barrett - they have an offer where its buy one get one half price, so a few big bottles of the juice was very reasonable. Its a 90% beetroot and 10% apple juice mix and while a little different in taste to the typical citrus juices I have actually come to quite enjoy a big glass at breakfast now!

I decided not to make my own as I really didnt want my juicer stained purple forever but I might be tempted to try it in future.

I'm going to keep reading the research about it as it comes out and see if its worth continuing. I dont realistically expect to be able to notice differences in my own performance but if the research continues to support a case then I'll probably keep drinking it in the run up to key events like this weekends 'A' 100 mile sportive and next years Raid Pyrenean adventure.

evilollie

the arginine will assist with better boners haha