Could a Red Spinach Ingredient Beat Beets for Boosting Nitric Oxide?

In the sports nutrition market, interest is growing in ingredients that help boost nitric oxide levels in the body to improve blood flow and, consequently, to help athletes work out longer and harder. Ingredients derived from beets have generated lots of interested due to the vegetable’s high-nitrate content. Earlier this year, Nutritional Outlook pointed to two newer beet-juice products, including one targeting the sports market specifically. But beets may not be the only red veggie getting into the sports-nutrition game. Red spinach is another contender, and, according to supplier PLT Health Solutions (Morristown, NJ), which is now teaming up with DolCas Biotech LLC (Chester, NJ) to offer a red-spinach ingredient, red spinach may actually outperform beets on the nitrate front.

Together, the companies are now selling Oxystorm, a red-spinach ingredient obtained through a patent-pending production process. According to PLT Health Solutions, the process “delivers the highest nitrate content ingredient from the leaves of red spinach-9000 mg/100 g,” calling red spinach “one of the richest sources of nitrate in nature.”

And, it says, red spinach has beets beat in several areas. First, Oxystorm, standardized to a minimum 9% nitrate content, claims to provide “more than five times the amount of nitrate as beetroot powder and more than 50 times of beet juice.”

Secondly, whereas most beet-based products also contain high amounts of sugar, Oxystorm, derived from Amaranthus dubius, is sugar free. Oxystrom also does not contain oxalate, which is often found in spinach and beet greens.

And red spinach offers plenty else nutritionally. It is high in potassium, for instance. “Oxystorm takes the best that red spinach has to offer and delivers it in an ingredient that optimizes its potential. This level of nutrient density allows you to add Oxystorm in meaningful amoutns to just about any type of functional food and sports nutrition product, including bars, beverage powders, chewables, functional foods, nutrition powders, and sports and energy drinks,” as well as supplements, added PLT Health Solutions in a press release.

The powder ingredient is 100% water soluble and offers a neutral pH and long shelf life, the company says.

Also read:

Nitric Oxide Ingredients for Sports

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine
jennifer.grebow@ubm.com