TRIED & TESTED
Good , Bett er , Beet
Beet Your Best with Beet It Sport
There ’ s a new sports nutritional product on the market that comes in small shot bottle , but don ’ t let looks deceive you , because Beet It Sport Nitrate 400 Shot is packed with power to boost your training and competition . – BY SEAN FALCONER
Here ’ s a brainteaser for you : what do Uganda ’ s Joshua Cheptegei and Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge and Geoffrey Kamworor all have in common ? Well , for starters , all three have set World Records in running – Cheptegei at 5000m , 5km , 10,000m ( and a 15km World Best ), Kamworor in the half marathon , and Kipchoge at the marathon distance . Also , all three have won multiple World Championship titles , including all three winning a World Cross Country Champs title at least once in their careers . Furthermore , all three are currently part of the renowned NN Running Team , which is officially partnered with Beet It Sport , producers of the Nitrate 400 Shot , and this means all three know all about the benefits of beetroot nitrates !
Recently launched in South Africa , this product from the UK has been on the market for a number of years , and today over 1 million 70ml Beetroot shots are sold annually across 25 countries worldwide . It is also used by many elite and professional sportsmen and women , including several cycling teams in the UCI World Tour , teams in the English Premier League and International Rugby Union , teams in the National Football League and National Basketball Association in the USA , as well as top triathletes and rowers .
The product has been used in more than 200 independent scientific studies worldwide and has been proven to do what it claims , and further recognition
Members of the NN
60 Running ISSUE 143 JULY 2021 / www . modernathlete . co . za
Team
came recently when it won the ‘ Best Pre-workout Product ’ and ‘ Best Sports Drink ’ categories at the 2020 European Sports Specialist Nutrition Awards .
Good , Better , Beet
OK , so that ’ s the impressive marketing hype , but what does the product actually do ? Well , this part of the story is also impressive . A pocket-sized 70ml shot of Beet It Sport Nitrate 400 delivers a dose of 400mg of dietary nitrate derived solely from concentrated beetroot juice . This nitrate is converted to nitrite by bacteria on the tongue , and as it enters the bloodstream , it is converted to nitric oxide , which is a vasodilator . What this means is that opens , or dilates , the blood vessels , thus boosting blood-flow , which increases oxygen supply to the muscles , thereby enhancing endurance performance .
In layman ’ s terms , dietary nitrate helps your muscles work better , and research by the International Olympic Committee has found that it can provide up to a 25 % increase in exercise time to exhaustion , a 5 % increase in sprint performance , and a 3 % increase in time-trial performance . The latter two figures may sound minimal , but at the top end of athletic sports
Get It Here
Available online at www . beet-it . co . za at R145.00 for 3x70ml shots , R275.00 for 6x70ml shots and R645.00 for 15x70ml shots .
that could mean the difference between a medal or no medal .
Which brings us to the important questions . Firstly , how does it taste , and is it easy to drink ? Most pleasant , in my opinion , and it goes down easily . It is 98 % beetroot concentrate with 2 % lemon juice added , and my first impression was that it actually smells and tastes more like tomato juice – I even pictured myself drinking a ‘ Bloody Mary ’ as I took the first swig . But hey , maybe that ’ s just my whacky taste buds …
The next question is , does it work ? Here you have to remember that magic potions that give instant power and endurance are only found in the Asterix and Obelix comics , and the Gummy Bear cartoons , so no , I didn ’ t start bouncing off the walls , but yes , I definitely felt more energised when I went running . I also experimented by drinking the shot 60 to 90 minutes before training , as recommended , versus early in the day before an evening run , and found that a few hours before exercising did actually work best .
Feel the Beet
Of course , drinking concentrated beetroot juice can have a few obvious ‘ side-effects .’ Your tongue does turn a bit red for a while , and later , when you visit the bathroom , you may notice a bit of discoloration of your urine , but that ’ s nothing to worry about . ( The same thing happens with concentrated orange juice .) More importantly , I found very few references to upset stomachs in the various articles I read about the product online . While one or two people reported having a slight reaction to the blast of beet , it seems most people who use it have no problems , and they do feel the boost of beet !
Images : Courtesy Beet It Sport