I’m one of the happy members of the Beet Cult (worshipping at least 3 times weekly, and peeing red like a champ), and I’m trying to figure out the research behind the claims of improvement. I can’t quite unravel the conflicting claims of nitrates’ and nitrites’ risks and benefits and was hoping that someone might be able to help. On the one hand, they’re linked to cancer and methemoglobinemia (usually in cured meats); on the other, they’re credited with improvements in the blood’s oxygen delivery in runners and cyclists (usually in beets; see esp. Ryan Hall). The usual google and pubmed searches didn’t seem to help.
Any nutritionists or other beet-and-bacon savvy people care to weigh in?
not a nutritionist…but I do like Beets, grow them in my back yard.
There was a whole lot of talk in the UK last year about pre race pre-loading with Beet juice, from what I remember you had drink over 1 litre a day to see benefits…I try to track down who was going on about it…might have been Coach Joe Beer.
The nitrates in processed meats have been linked to cancer in animals and humans for many years, lots and lots of google hits. Here’s a link about one of the worst cancers, pancreatic cancer: http://www.organicconsumers.org/...cessedmeat050305.cfm
Yes, I saw that. What I’m wondering about is how these nitrates (in processed meats) differ from the nitrates in beets that are supposed to be so good for performance.
Yes, I saw that. What I’m wondering about is how these nitrates (in processed meats) differ from the nitrates in beets that are supposed to be so good for performance.
From what I have been told…so someone who knows more feel free to jump in…
they don’t differ at all. All of these are found naturally in our bodies, meats, water, vegetables, etc. However, when these are combined with protein (aka cured meat), they increase the risk of forming into carcinogens within our bodies. However, all this is much less likely to occur in the presence of vitamin C. Statically speaking, the increased cancer rates were found to be with people who had high levels of cured meat intake and low levels of vitamin C. People with high intakes of both showed no increase in cancer rates…
not a nutritionist…but I do like Beets, grow them in my back yard.
There was a whole lot of talk in the UK last year about pre race pre-loading with Beet juice, from what I remember you had drink over 1 litre a day to see benefits…I try to track down who was going on about it…might have been Coach Joe Beer.
1/2 liter (500 ml) a day for four days before benefits were seen.
Why ‘juice’?
Can I eat beets instead?
Boil, peel, eat, no?
I know there will be A LOT of beats.
I always eat––rather than drink––my beets, but I also drink the water from the canned beets when I am unfortunate enough to not have any fresh beets on hand.
I would encourage you to go to better resources than just Google searches. I would try looking through PUBMED, a clearing house for searching through the peer-reviewed scientific literature (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/).
You may not be able to access the full scientific research articles, but read some abstracts. See what you can find.
I always eat rather than drink my beets, but I also drink the water from the canned beets when I am unfortunate enough to not have any fresh beets on hand.
Well, you’re trying to do the right thing by eating fresh. Because, now to make you’re life more complicated, here’s some sobering info for you about the endocrine disruptor BPA if you eat canned beets (or any other canned foods): http://www.foxnews.com/...ho-eat-canned-foods/
From what I have been told…so someone who knows more feel free to jump in…
they don’t differ at all. All of these are found naturally in our bodies, meats, water, vegetables, etc. However, when these are combined with protein (aka cured meat), they increase the risk of forming into carcinogens within our bodies. However, all this is much less likely to occur in the presence of vitamin C. Statically speaking, the increased cancer rates were found to be with people who had high levels of cured meat intake and low levels of vitamin C. People with high intakes of both showed no increase in cancer rates…
IIRC, it also had to do with the sodium nitrate converting to nitrite, so the end product was higher in nitrites than when it started, but I haven’t looked at anything about that in a long time.
Why ‘juice’?
Can I eat beets instead?
Boil, peel, eat, no?
I know there will be A LOT of beats.
I always eat––rather than drink––my beets, but I also drink the water from the canned beets when I am unfortunate enough to not have any fresh beets on hand.
I have no idea what heat can do to nitrates but I do know that it negatively impacts enzymes and other nutritionally important items. So, non-cooked is generally better. Juicing overall is more benefical than eating raw because you don’t have to deal with the fiber. Now, we all like a good BM butt (intended) you can get exponentially more of the good stuff by juicing than trying to eat the equivalent raw.
Follow-up question: I have juiced beets for some time now (before I ever knew about possible oxygen carrying capacity improvements) and have gotten to the point where I wouldn’t pee red unless I had a hard work-out. Anyone else experience this or know why it would take the exertion? It wasn’t blood.
Why ‘juice’?
Can I eat beets instead?
Boil, peel, eat, no?
I know there will be A LOT of beats.
I always eat––rather than drink––my beets, but I also drink the water from the canned beets when I am unfortunate enough to not have any fresh beets on hand.
I have no idea what heat can do to nitrates but I do know that it negatively impacts enzymes and other nutritionally important items. So, non-cooked is generally better. Juicing overall is more benefical than eating raw because you don’t have to deal with the fiber. Now, we all like a good BM butt (intended) you can get exponentially more of the good stuff by juicing than trying to eat the equivalent raw.
Follow-up question: I have juiced beets for some time now (before I ever knew about possible oxygen carrying capacity improvements) and have gotten to the point where I wouldn’t pee red unless I had a hard work-out. Anyone else experience this or know why it would take the exertion? It wasn’t blood.
My completely uninformed guess: hard workout leads to more dehydration than a moderate workout, so more concentration of beet dye in your fluids. (?)
after a couple days of eating beets I stop peeing red, so my body must somehow adjust to the beets and absorb all the color of whatever it is after a couple days (and I keep eating the same amount everyday). But yeah, sometimes I’ll be super dehydrated and will pee a little bit of red, but nothing like what I did the first day eating them after a long lay off.
The nitrates in processed meats have been linked to cancer in animals and humans for many years, lots and lots of google hits. Here’s a link about one of the worst cancers, pancreatic cancer:http://www.organicconsumers.org/...cessedmeat050305.cfm]
I find it amazing that whenever someone posts questions about food, there is always someone that post links to how bad “food” is…non-processed fresh vegetables are some of the healthiest things you can eat, and that is what the OP is talking about…yet once again we are told “food” is bad for us.
my fact…100% of people that breathe die…100%…100%…not some random number, or confirmed by a scientific survey, but 100%…now I’m sure I could convince someone that breathing is healthy, but for now, if you believe everything on the internet, you must stop breathing, or you will die.