Special Antioxidant Boosts Exercise Endurance
by Allie Comeau on July 1, 2009 
Leave the first comment
If you’re looking for a natural way to boost your exercise endurance and fight fatigue, the answer may be in your breakfast. Scientists are reporting you can increase your endurance by eating a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables and teas that contain the antioxidant quercetin.
Abundant in apples, red onions, berries, cabbage, broccoli and green and black teas, quercetin has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cell-energy activation properties that benefit health and increase your oxygen intake, therefore boosting your sports performance.
The study in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism followed 12 fit college students (who weren’t regular exercisers) for 14 days. For 7 days the students drank a placebo twice daily and for the other 7 days they drank a quercetin supplement twice daily. (Students maintained their normal routine and diet throughout the study.) Researchers then measured and compared their oxygen intake and endurance on a stationary bike.
During the 7 days when the students took quercetin, they increased their oxygen intake by 4% and their ride time on the stationary bike by 13%. Those are pretty substantial increases.
These findings suggest quercetin “may be important in relieving fatigue that keeps (people) sedentary,” Dr. J. Mark Davis, at University of South Carolina in Columbia, commented in a university press release.
If further studies confirm the results, Davis and fellow researchers believe quercetin could become an important supplement for athletes and exercisers. Either way, it couldn’t hurt to eat more apples, onions, berries and broccoli…
