 The scientific world could simply not believe that beets could significantly, noticeably improve athletic performance by enhancing energy production at the subcellular level. So the same type of study was repeated over and over and over in different labs? Forget the labs, what about out on the racetrack? Chugged two cups of beet juice and off they went. Randomized, double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study, nobody knew who was drinking what, going into it, beet juice versus denitrated beet juice. And the most striking finding was the significant improvement in 4 and 16k competitive cycling time trial performance after the ingestion of a single half-liter beetroot beverage with all nine individuals completing both distances faster after beetroot supplementation. And once the researchers were actually able to take muscle biopsies from people before and after and finally provide proof that mitochondrial efficiency, human energy production, could be improved, they finally won over the scientific establishment, a toast to health and performance. The media echoed the praise, complete with even more atrocious puns.