What does it look like?

• Nitrate is abundant in green leafy vegetables; increasing the dietary intake of these vegetables is one way to augment nitrate intake. Table 1 summarizes the nitrate content of a range of vegetables, with the best sources being green leafy plants and vegetables grown in low light conditions such as plant roots. The nitrate content of a specific vegetable source can vary considerably from plant to plant and will depend on factors such as climate, soil conditions and time since harvest.
• Typical nitrate dose used in recent studies of sports/exercise performance: ~ 6-8 mmol or ~350-500 mg nitrate provided by a single serve of beetroot juice concentrate, consumed ~ 2-3 hours pre-exercise. As an example, a 70ml shot of Beet It Sport Nitrate (James White, UK, Oz Beet It, Australia) contains 400mg nitrate.
• Preparation of own beetroot sources (i.e. cooked vegetable, relish, juice) may not result in a reliable or sufficiently high nitrate dose for targeted acute supplementation pre-exercise. However, encouraging a higher daily vegetable intake is likely to have numerous benefits, including an increased daily nitrate intake
• Nitrate may also be purchased as sodium or potassium nitrate which is used as a fertilizer and preservative of meats, but this is not recommended, and it is essential not to confuse nitrate with nitrite.
• Based on research demonstrating that nitrate can enhance exercise performance, a large number of beetroot-based supplements are now marketed to athletes, including juice concentrates, gels and powders. Few of these have been independently tested to determine their nitrate content. Preliminary research supports preferential use of beetroot juice concentrates.^{4, 5}
• It is important that the product is guaranteed to contain at least 5-6 mmol nitrate for it to be effective. Preliminary research indicates however, taking more than 10-12 mmol is no more effective than taking 6-8 mmol.⁶

Table 1: Typical nitrate content of vegetables (taken from Bryan NS and Hord NG (2010). Dietary Nitrates and nitrites: in: Bryan N (ed), Food Nutrition and the Nitric Oxide pathway. Destech Pub Inc: Lancaster, PA, pp 59-77)