A few years ago, researchers from Exeter University in the United Kingdom recently performed a study to test this hypothesis. They recruited nine subjects and gave them either regular beetroot juice or nitrate-depleted beetroot juice to drink every day for six days. Before and after this intervention all of the subjects underwent various exercise tests. After a washout period, the protocol was repeated with the two drinks switched.

The researchers found that consuming regular beetroot juice increased blood nitrate levels and reduced resting blood pressure. More importantly, it reduced oxygen consumption during moderate- and high-intensity running and increased time to exhaustion at high intensity by 15 percent.

Honestly, I don’t even know what that means. It made me laugh to imagine a sudden rush on beets. (Yay beets!)

It also made me think of this article I read in Outside magazine earlier in the summer, because of the click-baity title:

The 4 Most Influential Fitness Trends

We’re Obsessed With Shortcuts

The Source: Journal of Applied Physiology

We want to go fast. But we don’t want to do the hard work. Nitrate and protein supplement research dominates the literature. Nitrates, found in beetroot juice, were found to make exercise more efficient and help endurance athletes go stronger longer—if they drank 17 ounces of the stuff every day for at least three days before go-time.

And in muscle-building news, the journal’s top-cited study concluded that whey hydrolysate beats out soy protein and casein for post-workout muscle recovery. Athletes who downed a drink with 10 grams of whey hydrosylate after performing resistance exercise had a 93 percent greater muscle protein synthesis response than they did after consuming a drink that contained the same amount of casein.

The takeaway? Everyone’s looking for a fitness shortcut. In reality, diet tweaks and supplements might help you eke out that final percent of performance gain. But for most athletes, sticking to the fundamentals will yield more immediate results.

And alas, there’s no fast track to wellness, either. It’s a path. A day by day journey. It’s a practice. We just have to take it one step at a time. And if we fall off the wagon, get injured, endure a setback, then we simply have to stop, breathe, ask for help, return to kindness, and start over again. If drinking your beets helps, well and good. If not, then excessive consumption of beet juice is just going to make your pee a frightening shade of pink.