New research suggests that drinking high nitrate beetroot juice improves sprint performance and decision-making during exercise.

Researchers from the University of Exeter added further weight to the case for beetroot juice as a superfood for elite both elite and amateur sports players and athletes. Previously, they had found that regular beetroot juice drinks can help people to exercise for 16 percent longer.

"This research is a really exciting landmark in the work conducted on nitrate supplementation so far. The improvement we found may seem small, but it's likely to provide a meaningful advantage to the athlete on the sports field. It could mean that team sport players are able to make those important decisions faster and cover more ground than their opponents in the seconds when it matters most," Chris Thompson, who led the study, said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 16 male team sport players. They each received 140ml of Beet It Sport, high nitrate beetroot juice* for seven days.

On day seven, the sportsmen, who were all members of rugby, hockey or football teams, completed an intermittent sprint test which consisted of two 40 minute sessions of repeated two minute blocks. At the same time, they were given cognitive tasks designed to test how accurately and how fast they made decisions.

The participants carried out the same tests after drinking nitrate-rich beetroot juice and again after drinking a placebo version with the nitrate stripped out.

Researchers found those who had consumed the nitrate-rich version saw a 3.5 percent improvement in both sprint performance and a 3 percent improvement in speed of making decisions without hindering decision accuracy.

"These new results suggest that beetroot juice could improve both physical performance and decision-making during team sports such as rugby and football. In events like the Rugby World Cup, every second counts in those crucial moments, so this improvement could make all the difference," researcher Andrew Jones said in a statement.

The findings are detailed in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.