Drinking beetroot juice before going into a cool room stops your blood pressure from going up as much as it normally would when you're cold.
Scientific Claim
A single dose of nitrate-rich beetroot juice (13 mmol nitrate) blunts the rise in systolic blood pressure during 3 hours of cool air exposure (20°C) in healthy young males, with systolic blood pressure increasing by 9 mmHg in placebo conditions but remaining stable in nitrate-supplemented conditions.
Original Statement
“SBP was elevated above baseline at 1 h (P < 0.05, dz = 0.67), 2 h (P = 0.04, dz = 0.88), and 3 h (P = 0.03, dz = 1.05) in PL-Cool, whereas SBP was unchanged at 1 h (dz = 0.09), 2 h (dz = 0.24), and 3 h (dz = 0.66, all P > 0.05) in BR-Cool”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
appropriately stated
Study Design Support
Design supports claim
Appropriate Language Strength
definitive
Can make definitive causal claims
Assessment Explanation
This is a randomized controlled trial with appropriate controls and blinding, which can establish causation for this specific context. The language 'blunts the rise' accurately reflects the observed effect without overgeneralization.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Nitrate ingestion blunts the increase in blood pressure during cool air exposure: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover trial