Endurance training boost: India’s vegan sports nutrition brand launches sublingual caffeine strips and beetroot extract
The caffeine sublingual strip, meant for pre or during workout activity, contains 50mg caffeine anhydrous, 25mg of L-Theanine, and vitamin B-12.
Its beetroot extract supplements, on the other hand, is meant for delivering dietary nitrates for supporting oxygen uptake in the muscles.
The new launches will complement the company’s line of pre, during, and post training products for endurance athletes, Unived founder and CEO Amit Mehta told NutraIngredients-Asia.
“The new introductions cater to athletes who are at the top of their sport and are looking for the additional edge in their pursuit of optimal performance.
“We entered the sports nutrition space back in 2014, with India’s first line of Pre-During-Post range of products for endurance athletes. These were energy, hydration, and recovery formulations, which were soon followed by our energy gels, salt capsules, and then recently our elite endurance gels, elite drink mix, and elite recovery mix.
“While these products are staple fuel for endurance athletes, we have now gone a step further to offer our customers the well-known benefits of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), dietary nitrates, and sublingual caffeine.”
According to Mehta, the caffeine strip could be used during endurance and strength training.
“As it is sublingual, it provides a near immediate release of caffeine and users can experience the effects almost instantly. L-Theanine [on the other hand] offsets the jittery effects of caffeine,” Mehta said.
The strip will be available in peppermint flavour, which he said could help freshen the palate and would be a convenient option for consuming caffeine on the go.
Beetroot extract
The other new products are beetroot extracts supplements of different dosage amount. They serve as a source of dietary nitrates and could help support the muscle’s oxygen uptake.
“Beetroot supplementation before and during prolonged moderate-intensity exercise has shown to attenuate the progressive rise in oxygen consumption over time and reduce muscle glycogen depletion,” Mehta explained.
The company’s new beetroot extracts supplements come in two forms.
One of the products, named MCT Beet-216, is a powder pouch containing 216mg of dietary nitrates and 5,000mg of MCT.
The other is Elite Beet-420, a powdered sachet containing 420mg of dietary nitrates.
Mehta pointed out that beetroot extract used in the products were standardized to 6.5 per cent of dietary nitrates, while typical beetroots contain about 0.25 per cent to 0.3 per cent of dietary nitrates.
“This is a huge advantage as with just one serving of Elite Beet-420, consumers can get a massive 420mg of pure dietary nitrates,” he said.
Being a D2C brand, the products are sold via the company’s official website.
Elite focus
The company, which has developed some of its products with professional runners, said the new products would be targeted at elite athletes.
“Our products are used by some of the world's best ultra-marathon runners and are now also being discovered by marathon, half-marathon, and middle to short distance runners,” Mehta said.
In the past, the company co-developed its elite endurance gel with Hayden Hawks, one of the best performing ultra-marathon runners from America who is also a user of Unived’s products.
In January this year, the company also signed US based middle-distance runner, Rachel Schneider, who specialises in 1.5 km to 10km race, as its ambassador.
“This shows the versatility of our products, as they are being used right from the 1.5km distance all the way up to the 100km distance, and beyond, and also highlights that they are being used by some of the very best athletes, who are consistently performing at an elite level.
“Having said this, our products are also widely used by sub-elite as well as recreational athletes who are in the mid to front pack, as they most benefit from such well-structured formulations.”
