Beet Juice vs Caffeine What has more benefits?

lol it’s definitely an acquired taste.

I don’t know but it seems caffeine is the easier to acquire.

I recall watching a report that suggested that the fitter you are the smaller the affect Beet juice has on you. Although this may be referring solely to the pros!

I think the science suggests Beet juice may have more benefits, but caffeine just tastes better. And doesn’t make your pee pink. I personally can’t stand caffeine gels. But if I lay off coffees for 1-2weeks before an event. A double espresso about 20-30mins before a race works wonders.

1 Like

One quick recipe I use to get my beetroot and veggies in one go is the following:

300 ml Orange Juice
2-3 beet root
40g spinach
80g raspberries / strawberries

Wizz this in a blender and drink it straight. Quick way to get your greens and beetroot with a bit of sweet. The vitamin C from the OJ should also help uptake the spinach and beetroot.

3 Likes

:rofl: I’ve never been carded buying beet juice. But I have been carded buying caffeine.

1 Like

Junio…arugala or rhubarb is a better source of nitrate.

Use a rhubarb pie filling and you can carb load at the same time you get your nitrates. And you won’t pee purple like you do with beet juice.

3 Likes

:rofl: I’d love to believe the nanny state I live in legislated this, like when a certain band said happy hour is now enforced by state law :crazy_face:

1 Like

In my n=1 experience its caffeine by a long shot.

7 Likes

I’m currently experimenting with beet juice. My race is on Sunday and I started preloading on Tuesday. Lets see what, if anything, happens…

2 Likes

I’ve tried both, for some time albeit not at the same time.

Using the beet-it sport shots at times I could feel the Beet juice working, specifically on longer events about 3/4 of the way through and on consistent efforts such as climbs, my instinct was that more oxygen was getting to my muscles. At other times I couldn’t and couldn’t work out why I could notice it sometimes but not others. I played around the the pre-race ingestion time etc but couldn’t find a pattern.

I have and do take the SIS caffeine tablets - 500Mg about 45 mins pre race. I do notice a delay in fatigue, bit its related to mood. If I maintain a positive mood, I feel good for a long time. But if I’m in a negative mood, it seems to exaggerate that. I read somewhere that this kind of psychological effect enhancement is true - it enhance’s your mood in either direction and caffeine is an anxiety enhancer. Also be wary of the caffeine half life - 5hrs - we means it could well affect your sleep patterns/recovery.

However neither have been a “great result” factor, albeit I’ve had a flat year this year on caffeine and a better year last year on beet-it sport yet there are so many variables…

2 Likes

I remember when the country was free and you could go down to vitamin shoppe and buy 5000 3mg tabs of ephedrine HCl & a kilogram of 100% caffeine no questions asked. Not sure that was a good thing…

3 Likes

Caffine is real, beet juice is a placebo. So both work.

1 Like

This is N=1, but I’ve never noticed an increase in power or a reduction in RPE with beet juice and I’m taking 800mg of concentrated nitrate.

Caffeine is a total game changer. In the long races you can go from a RPE of 8-9 to an RPE of like 6-7 if you take 400mg. My best power numbers have come from high caffeine days.

I think I get the most benefit on long stuff that hurts, rather than all out stuff.

That being said I take beet juice in late night races where I wouldn’t take caffeine.

2 Likes

Tell that to someone having a heart attack.

1 Like

Why is this one or the other? Just drink UNBEETABREW - The World’s First Beet-Infused Performance Coffee :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1 Like

We can speculate, I am not aware of any study combining them both , but I think you got to put it into perspective.

Both have documented performance enhancements but nitrate has less effect on well trained people. Feeling an effect of 1-3% is pretty hard compared to untrained where the enhancements have had higher meassurements.

Caffeine play mind tricks :slight_smile: But the tricky part with caffeine is that there are 3 different genotypes that responds differently to caffine. Inone genotype there is not uncommon to see decline in performance when using caffeine.

So studies becomes really tricky when you compare them to each other. They dont take into account the genotype in the studies, so one group in one study can randomly have a majority that are high respondera to caffeine, the other study vice versa… then throw in beet juice to the mix, training history etc and it starts to get complicated :slight_smile:

So back to the original question… I dont believe they will take one or the other out, but likely many of us are fit enough for beet juice to have a really small gain where caffeine regardless play mind tricks and can push you a bit harder, fit or unfit :slight_smile:

2 Likes

:man_facepalming:

So after the nitrate and caffeine negate each other, you’re left with a $50 bag of mushroom water.

I’ll pass, thanks.

2 Likes

https://www.peakendurancesport.com/nutrition-for-endurance-athletes/supplements/caffeine-beetroot-juice-two-supplements-better-one/]

2 Likes

Thanks i got the recipe will try it thanks again

1 Like

Aaaaaand the answer is what? Did you notice a difference? And confirm that you did not ingest caffeine during your preloading or during the race.