Browse the site

Start with a goal 40 things people take supplements for — sleep, stress, joints, focus.
Home Get the app
Beet

Beet

Best for

Raise your aerobic capacity

Faint early signal 100–280 mL/day 3 studies, n=78

Beet delivers likely real but unnoticeable improvements in nitric-oxide-related blood flow and blood pressure, without a meaningful, reliable exercise-performance boost.

Median effective dose, most-studied outcomes

  • Build aerobic capacity 140 mL —
  • Sustain more output for longer 140 mL 1 wk
  • Promote easier vessel relaxation 280 mL 1 wk
Full protocol, 4 outcomes

Risk, worst reported severity

  • Urine discolouration mild
  • cadmium exposure
  • warfarin major
All 10 events and interactions

What beet actually does

Outcome Effect Evidence Dose Time Rank
Modest benefits 2
Improve nitric oxide balance Likely real but unnoticeable Nitric oxide helps blood vessels relax and maintain healthy circulation.
trivial 		1 meta-analysis 3 papers · n=1.9k 70–300 mL 1 wk #4 /21
Lower blood pressure Likely real but unnoticeable Blood pressure is the force of blood against artery walls, and high levels strain the heart.
trivial 		1 meta-analysis 1 papers · n=1.8k 70 other — —
Early research 3
Raise your aerobic capacity Faint early signal Aerobic fitness helps you sustain hard exercise before fatigue makes you slow down.
small 		3 RCTs 3 papers · n=78 100–280 mL — —
Keep going longer during exercise Barely detectable Exercise endurance helps you sustain effort before fatigue makes you slow down or stop.
trivial 		3 RCTs 3 papers · n=70 140–280 mL 1 wk —
Perform better in sport Not enough research Overall sport performance reflects how well you perform across the demands of your sport.
trivial 		1 RCT 1 papers · n=20 140 mL — —

Effect tiers come from native-unit MCID where available, Cohen's d otherwise.

Protocol

Dose, timing & forms

How much

The better-studied protocols use beetroot juice or concentrated juice in the neighborhood of 140 to 280 mL daily for aerobic capacity and sustained exercise output. 12 Vessel-relaxation studies cluster nearer 250 to 280 mL daily, but the blood-pressure changes in the reviewed evidence are small enough that most people will not feel them. 23

When and how long

Use beet consistently through the study period rather than treating it as an occasional pre-workout shortcut. The salient exercise and vessel studies ran for roughly 8 days, so any effect reflects repeated intake, not a single serving. 2 If you are testing it for training, keep the product and routine stable so you can judge whether the small possible effect matters for your own sessions. 12

Forms & standardisation

The clinical work centers on beetroot juice and concentrated juice products, not generic beet powder. 12 Look for a product that states its dietary nitrate content or provides transparent batch testing, because the nitrate is the compound tied to the blood-flow and exercise mechanism. 23 A bright red color alone does not tell you how much nitrate the product provides.

Studied range, by outcome

Outcome Studied range Median effective Duration Evidence
Build aerobic capacity 140–280 mL 140 mL — 3 papers 2 sig. endpoints
Sustain more output for longer 140–280 mL 140 mL 1 wk 3 papers 1 sig. endpoint
Promote easier vessel relaxation 250–280 mL 280 mL 1 wk 3 papers 5 sig. endpoints
Build all-around athletic ability 140 mL — — 1 paper

Adverse events and drug interactions

Safety events

Urine discolouration mild
cadmium exposure
barium exposure
aluminium exposure
iron overload / excess iron exposure
sodium excess / increased sodium intake
lead exposure (not detected)
No serious adverse events reported

Drug interactions

warfarin major decreases effect
warfarin minor unknown
In context

What this is and how it works

  • Across 3 studies (n=1,867), nitric-oxide endpoints improved; one study (n=1,823) reported lower blood pressure, with no MCID supplied. 2
  • Thirteen reviewed papers spanning 28 outcomes included blood-flow, blood-pressure, exercise, and oxygen-use measures.
  • Findings primarily involve dietary nitrate, with exercise benefits remaining early and inconsistent. 1

Beet supplements usually come as beetroot juice, concentrated shots, or powder. Their headline compound is dietary nitrate, a natural molecule abundant in beetroot and leafy vegetables that your body converts into nitric oxide. 23

After you consume beet nitrate, bacteria in your mouth and enzymes in your body convert it into nitric oxide, a signal that tells blood vessels when to relax. Think of it as opening extra lanes on a road when traffic builds, so blood can move with less resistance. 23 During exercise, nitrate also appears to lower the oxygen needed for a set workload, although that physiological change does not guarantee a meaningful improvement in race or gym performance. 12

Bottom line

Beetroot is reasonable for someone curious about a small edge in aerobic training or blood-flow support, especially if they enjoy juice-based supplements. Keep expectations grounded: the reviewed findings show subtle vessel effects and early, inconsistent exercise results rather than a dramatic endurance upgrade. 123 Skip self-experimentation without clinical advice if you take warfarin.

Frequently asked

Common questions

Does beetroot juice improve endurance?

Early trials show a small, inconsistent endurance signal. Some people sustain hard exercise a little longer, but the reviewed evidence does not show a dependable, noticeable performance boost. 12

Does beetroot lower blood pressure?

Beetroot nitrate can produce small reductions in blood pressure by increasing nitric oxide availability, but the effect size in the reviewed evidence is trivial. It does not replace medical care for high blood pressure. 3

Why does beetroot juice affect exercise?

Its nitrate turns into nitrite and then nitric oxide in the body. That signal helps blood vessels widen and can reduce the oxygen cost of a given workload, like making the same hill require slightly less fuel. 12

Is beetroot juice safe to take every day?

Red or pink urine is a common harmless effect. If you use warfarin or have been advised to limit certain minerals, check with your clinician before using concentrated beet products.

Sources

Sources

  1. 1. Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans (2009) ↑
  2. 2. Acute and chronic effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on blood pressure and the physiological responses to moderate-intensity and incremental exercise (2010) ↑
  3. 3. Inorganic nitrate supplementation lowers blood pressure in humans: role for nitrite-derived NO (2015) ↑

Generated August 27, 2026

Related

More evidence for Beet