We’ve known for a long time that a healthy diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, contributes to an athlete’s ability to perform at their peak. But it wasn’t until 2009 that the performance benefits of beet juice were specifically documented.

More than six years after the first research was published, we now have a greater understanding of how and why beets boost performance. They contain large amounts of naturally-occurring dietary nitrates, which support the body’s ability to produce nitric oxide or NO. Among other things, NO acts as a vasodilator; it increases the size of the blood vessels improving oxygen flow.

Numerous studies have now confirmed the positive effects of nitrates on athletic performance including one at the University of Exeter, which showed that athletes who supplemented their diet with beet juice were able to extend their time to exhaustion or endurance by a full 16 percent!

After this study was published, athletes began to consume one to two liters of beet juice daily in order to get the 250 to 400 mg of dietary nitrates that are needed to boost performance.

Needless to say, drinking this much beet juice wasn't easy....