Scientists say beetroot juice 'significantly increases muscle force during exercise' - Daily Mail

Researchers have found that beetroot juice significantly increases muscle force, allowing you to lift heavier weights and perform more reps.

Vegetables such as beetroot are rich in nitrates, chemicals that boost oxygen and blood around the body and have been linked to increased endurance.

Dr Barbara Piknova, a staff scientist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in the US, said: 'This study provides the first direct evidence that muscle nitrate levels are important for exercise performance, presumably by acting as a source of nitric oxide.

'These results have significant implications not only for the exercise field, but possibly for other medical areas such as those targeting neuromuscular and metabolic diseases related to nitric oxide deficiency.'

Dr Andy Jones, a physiologist at the University of Exeter, said: 'Our research has already provided a large body of evidence on the performance-enhancing properties of dietary nitrate, commonly found in beetroot juice.

'Excitingly, this latest study provides the best evidence to date on the mechanisms behind why dietary nitrate improves human muscle performance.'