Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Acute dietary nitrate supplementation improves performance

A new study, conducted by researchers in the University of Exeter UK, was published few days ago on the effect of acute dietary nitrate supplementation on performance in a simulated cycling race (Lansley et al., 2011). Nine competitive male cyclists were assigned in a randomized, crossover design to consume 0.5 L of beetroot juice (containing 6.2 mmol of nitrate) or 0.5 L of nitrate-depleted beetroot juice 2.5 h before the completion of a 4- and a 16.1-km time trial. The results showed that acute dietary nitrate supplementation improved cycling time trials by 2.8% and this was a significant improvement compared with the control trial.

These results together with those from other studies suggest that dietary nitrate supplementation may improve endurance performance.

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