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20.02.2023

Nitrate in food makes your muscles (a little) stronger and faster

From research with athletes, we now know that supplementation with 600 milligrams of nitrate can improve sports performance. Regular foods also contain nitrate - and the more vegetables such as beets, spinach and lettuce you eat, the more nitrate you consume. Does this dietary nitrate also affect the functioning of muscles?

Study
Australian researchers measured the nitrate intake of 1470 Australian women over the age of seventy. They got the women to do some basic physiologic tests, then looked to see if they found any correlation between the results and nitrates.

They brushed off the effect of as many other factors as possible with statistics.

Results
The more nitrates the women consumed, the greater the force with which they could squeeze a dynamometer with their hands and the faster they could get up from a chair. The effect wasn't earth-shattering, but hey, it was statistically significant. Every bit helps.

Click on the figure and table below for a larger version.

Conclusion
"This investigation highlights potential benefits of habitual nitrate-rich diets on muscle strength and physical function in a large cohort of older Australian women", write the Australians.

"Considering poor muscle strength and physical function are associated with a range of adverse health outcomes (e.g. falling, fractures, CVD, and mortality), increasing dietary nitrate especially although vegetables may be an effective way to limit any age-associated declines in muscle function."

Source:
J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2019 Jun;10(3):601-10.

More:
Beetroot for bone strength 13.02.2023
Daily cup of nitrate-rich leafy vegetables helps prevent cardiovascular disease 23.08.2021
Spinach and rucola work just as well as beetroot for athletes 15.07.2016

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