If you’re physically active and wondering whether you should supplement your vegan diet with beta-alanine, you’re not alone. Some vegans worry about becoming deficient in beta-alanine, while others are looking for an extra boost during workouts.
What is beta-alanine in the first place, and is it actually effective? Is it necessary for vegans? As a vegan registered dietitian, I’ll answer these questions and more below!
What is beta-alanine?
Beta-alanine is an amino acid produced naturally by the liver. Since our bodies produce their own beta-alanine, it’s considered a non-essential amino acid. Unlike essential amino acids, there is no risk of beta-alanine deficiency even when getting no beta-alanine from the diet.
Unlike many other amino acids, the body doesn’t use beta-alanine to make proteins. Instead, it’s used to produce other biological compounds like carnosine.
It’s this function as a building block of carnosine that makes beta-alanine such a popular sports nutrition supplement. Beta-alanine can be taken as a stand-alone supplement but is also found in multi-ingredient pre-workout supplements containing other exercise-boosting ingredients like caffeine and creatine.
Besides supplements, beta-alanine can be obtained from animal protein sources like meat, fish, and poultry. Plant-based foods are not good sources of beta-alanine.
RELATED: Vegan Sources of BCAAs
Should vegans take beta-alanine?
Because plant-based diets lack beta-alanine, some people wonder whether physically active vegans should supplement with it.
The truth is that beta-alanine supplementation isn’t required for vegans since the liver naturally produces beta-alanine.
Interestingly, exercise itself may increase muscle carnosine even in vegetarians. In a small 2018 study1, vegetarians who performed high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on an exercise bike had significantly higher muscle carnosine levels than vegetarians who didn’t exercise.
That said, beta-alanine supplementation in adequate doses is effective for increasing muscle carnosine and may help improve exercise performance. You don’t need to go out of your way to take a supplement, but if you want to take beta-alanine for these purposes, it’s safe to do so.
But wait — if the point of taking beta-alanine is to increase muscle carnosine, why not cut out the middleman and take carnosine itself? The problem is that when we ingest carnosine, our digestive systems break it down into smaller components, meaning it never reaches the muscle intact.
Taking beta-alanine is much more effective since the body can use it to produce its own carnosine.
Benefits of beta-alanine
Beta-alanine is included in many pre-workouts because, unlike many other supplements, it’s backed by research. Let’s discuss its primary benefits below.
Improves exercise performance
Taking 4-6 grams of beta-alanine2 daily has been shown to significantly increase the amount of carnosine stored in muscle tissue.
Carnosine is a compound produced by the body from a combination of two amino acids: beta-alanine and histidine. It acts as an intracellular buffer, helping regulate pH levels in skeletal muscle to reduce fatigue and acidosis.
When taken for 2-4 weeks, beta-alanine can help improve athletic performance in timed trial tasks that last between 1 to 4 minutes. These types of fitness tests are often used for endurance activities like cycling, rowing, and running.
Beta-alanine may also reduce neuromuscular fatigue in older adults and improve tactical performance.
May act as an antioxidant
A nice benefit of beta-alanine is that it may help prevent the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs).
AGEs are proteins or lipids (fats) which have become attached to glucose molecules, a process known as “glycation”. These compounds may lead to an accelerated rate of aging and have been indicated in various chronic health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis3.
As an antioxidant, carnosine is also known to prevent oxidative stress-related damage in the body.
By preventing the formation of AGEs and reducing oxidative stress, antioxidants can help keep us healthier as we age and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. It’s important to note, however, that research on carnosine’s health benefits as an antioxidant in humans is scarce.
Keep in mind that the most effective way to get more antioxidants is through a plant-based diet rich in whole fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes seasoned with plenty of herbs and spices.
If you’re interested in carnosine for its antioxidant benefits, I’d recommend looking at your diet first to see whether you’re already including a variety of these nutrient-dense foods.
RELATED: Vegan Creatine Sources for Optimal Performance
Beta-alanine disadvantages
When starting any supplement, it’s important to be aware of the potential disadvantages and side effects. Beta-alanine is no exception.
Paresthesia (tingling)
Paresthesia is the scientific term for the tingling, burning sensation that can occur with beta-alanine supplementation. Often, it can be felt in the hands, neck, and face. It isn’t dangerous, but it can certainly be annoying and uncomfortable.
Paresthesia most often occurs when taking more than 800 milligrams of beta-alanine in a non-sustained release formulation. Typically, the more beta-alanine you take at once, the worse the tingling or burning2.
Fortunately, paresthesia can be avoided by choosing a supplement that has a sustained-release formulation.
Competes with taurine for absorption
Beta-alanine is absorbed using the same digestive mechanisms as taurine, an amino acid-like compound, meaning they may compete with each other for absorption when either is taken in high amounts.
Theoretically, this could mean that supplementing with high amounts of beta-alanine could deplete taurine levels in vegans4 since taurine isn’t present in plant-based foods.
This effect hasn’t been proven in humans, however, and isn’t expected to happen when beta-alanine is taken according to the recommended dosage of 4-6 grams per day for exercise performance.
RELATED: Vegan Taurine Sources: How Vegans Can Get Enough of This Nutrient
Lack of regulation
The International Society of Sports Nutrition states that beta-alanine supplementation is safe for healthy people when taken at recommended doses.
Still, dietary supplements in the United States aren’t well-regulated by the FDA. If purchasing from a sketchy, non-reputable manufacturer, supplements may contain dangerous contaminants like anabolic steroids or heavy metals, which are most common in sports nutrition supplements.
If you choose to take beta-alanine alone or in a pre-workout, choose supplements that have been third-party tested for safety and purity. If possible, choose one that has been NSF-Certified For Sport.
Summary
While there’s no risk of becoming deficient in beta-alanine on a plant-based diet, vegans looking for an additional edge (especially in endurance activities) will likely benefit from supplementation if recommended dosing strategies (4-6 grams per day) are followed.
If you choose to take beta-alanine, use a sustained-release formulation to reduce the risk of paresthesia.
Wondering whether you should take other sports nutrition supplements as a vegan? Check out Should Vegans Take Creatine?
The scientific information in this article was accurate at the time of publishing but may change over time as new research becomes available.
References
- DE Salles Painelli V, Nemezio KM, Pinto AJ, et al. High-Intensity Interval Training Augments Muscle Carnosine in the Absence of Dietary Beta-alanine Intake. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2018;50(11):2242-2252. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001697
- Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Stout JR, et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:30. Published 2015 Jul 15. doi:10.1186/s12970-015-0090-y
- Arivazhagan L, López-Díez R, Shekhtman A, Ramasamy R, Schmidt AM. Glycation and a Spark of ALEs (Advanced Lipoxidation End Products) – Igniting RAGE/Diaphanous-1 and Cardiometabolic Disease. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:937071. Published 2022 Jun 24. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.937071
- Rogerson D. Vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017;14:36. Published 2017 Sep 13. doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0192-9
