Fitness & Muscle

Beetroot and Blood Pressure: What the Research Actually Shows

What nitrate-rich beetroot juice has and has not been shown to do for blood pressure and endurance

Published

May 26, 2025

Last updated

September 11, 2026

Read time

6 min read

Medically reviewed by

Rhonda Collins, FNP-C

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Beetroot is one of the most studied foods in sports and cardiovascular nutrition, and it is also one of the most oversold. Beets are a nutritious vegetable, and nitrate-rich beet juice has been tested in dozens of small randomized trials. What those trials actually support is narrower than most marketing suggests.

Here is what the research shows, what it does not show, and where beets reasonably fit in an eating pattern.

Beets are rich in dietary nitrate. Some of that nitrate is converted by oral bacteria to nitrite and then to nitric oxide, a signaling molecule involved in relaxing the smooth muscle of blood vessels. That pathway is the proposed mechanism behind the blood-pressure and exercise findings below. It is a plausible and well-described mechanism, but a mechanism is a hypothesis about why an effect might occur, not evidence of a clinical benefit on its own.

What the blood pressure trials found

High blood pressure puts long-term stress on the heart and blood vessels, and over time it raises the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cognitive decline. That is why it is treated as a medical condition rather than a lifestyle preference.

The most recent systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials in adults with hypertension pooled 11 trials with 349 participants total. Nitrate-rich beetroot juice reduced clinic systolic blood pressure by about 5 mmHg compared with control, and the authors graded the certainty of that evidence as low. There was no significant effect on clinic diastolic blood pressure and no significant effect on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, which is the measurement that best reflects real-world blood pressure. Heterogeneity between trials was moderate to high, meaning the individual trials did not agree well with each other [1].

An earlier and broader meta-analysis pooling trials in mixed populations, not only people with hypertension, found an average systolic reduction of about 3.6 mmHg and a diastolic reduction of about 1.3 mmHg [5]. The direction is consistent across analyses. The size is small, and it is measured over days to weeks.

Three things follow from that, and they matter more than the headline number:

• The trials measured a short-term change in a biomarker. None of them measured whether beetroot juice prevents heart attacks, strokes, or any other outcome.
• The effect was seen on clinic systolic readings only, and it did not carry through to 24-hour monitoring.
• Low-certainty evidence means future trials could meaningfully change the estimate.

Beetroot juice does not treat hypertension, and it is not a substitute for blood-pressure care. Nobody should start, stop, or change a blood-pressure medication based on a beet product. If your blood pressure is elevated, that is a conversation with your doctor.

What the exercise trials found

The endurance research is genuinely interesting and genuinely mixed. The frequently cited 2009 study was a crossover trial in eight healthy men. Six days of beetroot juice lowered the oxygen cost of moderate exercise and extended time to exhaustion during severe-intensity cycling from about 583 to 675 seconds [2]. That is the source of the “16% longer” figure that circulates online. It is a real result from eight people in a laboratory test.

Larger reviews give a more tempered picture. A systematic review of beetroot juice and cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes found benefits in some protocols and populations but not others [3], and a 2025 umbrella review of 20 systematic reviews found improvements in time-to-exhaustion and muscular endurance but no significant improvement in several other measures, while rating most of the included reviews as low or critically low quality [4]. Lasting longer in an open-ended lab test is not the same as finishing a race faster.

Our pre-workout supplement guide covers dietary nitrate alongside the other common ingredients if you want the wider comparison.

Beet powder, juice, and whole beets are not interchangeable

Nearly all of the research above used nitrate-standardized beetroot juice at a known dose. Retail beet powders and juices are not standardized, and nitrate content varies widely by cultivar, growing conditions, and processing, so a supplement label rarely tells you how much nitrate you are actually getting. Findings from a measured research dose cannot be assumed to transfer to an arbitrary scoop of powder.

Whole beets are a vegetable. They contribute fiber, folate, potassium, and nitrate to the diet, and vegetable-rich eating patterns are well supported for cardiovascular health in general. That is a reasonable and honest case for eating beets. It is a different claim from taking a beet supplement to lower blood pressure.

Safety notes

Beets as food are well tolerated by most people. Beeturia, a pink or red tint to urine or stool, is harmless but surprising if you are not expecting it.

Beets are high in oxalate, so if you have had calcium-oxalate kidney stones, ask your doctor before making them a daily habit. Concentrated beet juice has a measurable effect on blood pressure in trials, so if you take blood-pressure medication, tell your prescribing clinician before adding it regularly rather than adjusting anything on your own.

The bottom line

Nitrate-rich beetroot juice produced a modest, low-certainty reduction in clinic systolic blood pressure in small randomized trials, with no demonstrated effect on 24-hour blood pressure and no evidence of any effect on cardiovascular events. In exercise, the findings depend heavily on the population and the test. Beets are a good vegetable to eat, and they are not a treatment.

If you want to know where your cardiovascular risk actually stands, that comes from measurement, not from a supplement choice. Mito Health’s blood panels cover the lipid, metabolic, and inflammatory markers used to assess cardiovascular risk, including ApoB, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and hs-CRP, alongside clinician review of your results. Beets pair reasonably with the rest of a heart-healthy pattern, including omega-3s and stress reduction.

Medical Disclaimer

This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Beetroot products are not a treatment for high blood pressure. Talk to your doctor before changing how you manage blood pressure, and never adjust a prescribed medication on your own.

References

[1] Grönroos R, Eggertsen R, Bernhardsson S, Praetorius Björk M. Effects of beetroot juice on blood pressure in hypertension according to European Society of Hypertension Guidelines: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2024;34(10):2240-2256. PMID: 39069465

[2] Bailey SJ, et al. Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans. J Appl Physiol. 2009;107(4):1144-1155. PMID: 19661447

[3] Domínguez R, et al. Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2017;9(1):43. PMID: 28067808

[4] Poon ET, et al. Dietary Nitrate Supplementation and Exercise Performance: An Umbrella Review of 20 Published Systematic Reviews with Meta-analyses. Sports Med. 2025;55(5):1213-1231. PMID: 40085422

[5] Bahadoran Z, et al. The Nitrate-Independent Blood Pressure-Lowering Effect of Beetroot Juice: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Adv Nutr. 2017;8(6):830-838. PMID: 29141968