Dietary nitrates are gaining traction as a sports performance enhancer. Abundant in leafy greens and beetroot, nitrates are converted in the body to nitric oxide, which plays a vital role in blood flow regulation and metabolic control. A large-scale systematic review of 80 clinical trials, conducted in 2020, showed the effects of consuming nitrate-rich foods hours before exercising not only boosts performance, but exercising efficiency as well. Here is why a nitrate-rich diet is helpful for athletes and people looking to get more out of their exercise regimen.
What Happens To Nitrates In The Body?
The research, published in the journal Sports Medicine, states that when one eats foods that contain nitrates, like leafy greens and beetroot, the body turns the nitrates into a chemical called nitric oxide. This is a vital molecule in the human body. It helps widen blood vessels, reduces blood pressure, and protects against infections.
The increased nitrate concentration and reduced resting blood pressure that come from nitrate supplementation can make exercise more efficient and improve athletic performance. This is especially true of physiological responses to exercise, such as muscle efficiency and oxygenation. Research has suggested that it could improve performance by approximately 3 percent– an ammount that could prove to be crucial in competitions where the margin of winning comes down to the millisecond.
Additionally, a limited ability to produce nitric oxide has been linked to health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and erectile dysfunction. This is a promising new development in the field of sports nutrition.
Nitrate-rich Diet
Some people take nitrates as a supplement to help with exercise. There are natural ways to include it in the diet, too. Green, leafy vegetables such as lettuce, celery, spinach, and cress, as well as beetroots, are rich in this element. Drinking a smoothie or juice made by combining all these ingredients a couple of hours (2-4) before exercising produces the ideal outcome according to the study. However, the study results show state that increasing nitrate content in the diet does not help women or elite athletes too much.
It is also important to remember that too much nitrates can be harmful. Taking a balanced approach to consuming them is the right way to go.
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