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I’ve had another day working from home so have been beavering away with the odd twitter and blog break since 7.15. I was up early to do Level 3 of the 30 Day Shred then had a really gorgeous breakfast. I made a chocolate cherry green monster smoothie (spinach, frozen cherries, chocolate whey, soy milk, matcha green tea powder and maca powder) and topped it with one of Tam’s crumbled dark chocolate cherry cookies.

It was just perfect, the cookie went so well with the smoothie, out of this world delicious!

Mid morning I snacked on an un pictured russet apple. For lunch I had some Chickpea, sweet potato, aubergine and green bean curry from my frozen stash served with spinach followed by an orange.

 

The curry tasted amazing, much better than it did on the day I made it. I almost couldn’t believe I’d made it myself!

Mid afternoon I had a bowl of vanilla tofu with apple, raspberry, goji berry and cinnamon compote and some We are bear apple crumble granola.

Such a lovely filling snack!

I’m off to yoga tonight (and a trip to Starbucks hopefully, yey!) so I shall leave you with a bit of a (wordy) review!

Beet It Shot Review

A couple of months ago I was sent a pack of Beet It Shots from James White Drinks to test out and review.

The shots are basically small bottles of concentrated organic beetroot juice with a little lemon juice added.

Beetroots are naturally high in nitric oxide (NO). Here’s some info from the website:

So what does NO do?

• regulator of blood pressure;
• a gatekeeper of blood flow to certain organs;
• a stamina enhancer via oxygen usage efficiency;
• a weapon against infection;
• a signal molecule in the nervous system.

‘The Beet It shot version is an organic concentrated beetroot 7cl bottle that delivers a comparable dose of dietary nitrate as a 25cl Beet It organic beetroot juice. It is cut with lemon juice to  reduce the sweetness of the beetroot and actually does not taste of beetroot (unlike the Beet It juice). So it is a quick easy dose for people that do not like beetroot juice!  We have only just launched it but the UK elites sports teams (UK athletics team took them to the July European Championships and both the England and Welsh rugby teams have been trialling them) are very interested’

For more info on the research behind NO see here.

How I used it

I used the Beet It Shots as my pre work out snack so I would drink one about an hour before hitting the gym. Obviously this was not a proper research trial but I can’t say I noticed a huge difference between how well I worked out when using the Beet It Shots in comparison to other pre workout snacks such as dried fruit and nuts.

Pro’s

• These are a great way of getting in one of your 5 a day which is organic and fairly low calorie for a juice (71 cals for a shot).
• High quality, organic product made with British ingredients
• Convenient – handy little bottle which you can easily carry around with you.
• The shot didn’t cause me any digestive problems.
• The shot will also give you a great hit of antioxidants.
• These could be good if you work out first thing and can’t stomach food before working out. I found that they provided just enough of an energy boost to make a difference.
• Great health claims backed up by some convincing research.

Con’s

• Cost – these are not cheap. They are sold in Holland and Barratt for £1.79 a little bottle.
• Taste – I love beetroot and these still sometimes tasted a bit too sweet for me (although they don’t particularly taste of beetroot, weird I know).
• Although I didn’t have any digestive problems these did turn my pee pink, which personally I found a little disconcerting!

My overall verdict

Personally I wouldn’t purchase these again on a regular basis. If they were a little cheaper that would be better but I wouldn’t want to see any reduction in the quality of the product (i.e. British sourced beetroot and organic). I would perhaps buy them if I was feeling a bit under the weather and wanted a boost, as while taking these I did feel really healthy, but I can’t say that was just down to the shots! I would also consider buying these again if I was training for an event as I found them useful while training for the Great North Run and even downed one before the big race! If you are looking for a convenient liquid snack before working out or a handy way to increase your consumption of antioxidants and vegetables then these could be really good for you. If your training hard for an event or have a high blood pressure it could be worth trying these out for yourself as the research to support the shots around helping in these areas is very good.

James White Drinks also sell a full sized bottle of beetroot juice, as well as a great range of fresh veggie and fruit juices. As beetroots are often used to add sweetness in healthy chocolate cakes and brownies I would love to try it in a chocolate smoothie some time!

Have you tried Beet It Shots before? What was your opinion of the product? Is this something you would try?