Does Beetroot Lower Blood Pressure? What the Research Shows
Quick Answer
Beetroot has better evidence behind it than most things sold for blood pressure, and the reason is nitrate, not the beet. In controlled trials, nitrate-rich beetroot juice was associated with an average reduction of roughly 4.4 mmHg systolic, and a four-week trial in people with elevated readings reported around 8/5 mmHg. The catch is the one almost nobody mentions on a product page: those studies used 250 mL of juice standardized to about 400 mg of nitrate, while beet powder capsules have been measured at 5 to 10 mg. Most labels do not disclose nitrate at all. So the honest answer is that the research supports nitrate-rich beetroot, and it does not automatically transfer to the capsule on the shelf.
What the research actually found
Beetroot is unusual in this category. Most single ingredients sold for blood pressure rest on small studies with soft endpoints. Beetroot has randomized, placebo-controlled trials that measured blood pressure directly, including around the clock rather than once in a clinic.
The most quoted is a 2015 trial published in Hypertension by Kapil and colleagues at Queen Mary University of London. Sixty-eight adults with high readings drank 250 mL of beetroot juice daily for four weeks. The placebo group drank the same beetroot juice with the nitrate removed, which is a smart design, because it isolates the nitrate instead of comparing beets against nothing. The nitrate group saw reductions of roughly 8 mmHg systolic and 5 mmHg diastolic on 24-hour ambulatory monitoring.
Zoom out and the picture is more modest. A 2013 systematic review and meta-analysis in the Journal of Nutrition pooled 16 trials and found an average systolic reduction of 4.4 mmHg, with a smaller and less certain change in diastolic. The authors also found that the higher the nitrate dose, the larger the change, which matters for everything that follows in this article.
| Study | Design | Nitrate dose | Change in systolic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kapil et al., Hypertension, 2015 | 68 adults, 4 weeks, nitrate-depleted juice as placebo | 6.4 mmol daily (about 400 mg) | About 8 mmHg (ambulatory) |
| Siervo et al., J Nutr, 2013 | Meta-analysis, 16 trials, 2 hours to 15 days | Varied; effect tracked with dose | 4.4 mmHg average |
Two honest caveats. Most of these trials were short, some only hours long, and they cannot tell us what daily beet juice does to cardiovascular risk over years. And the effect appears to fade once the nitrate stops, which makes beetroot a habit rather than a course of treatment.
Why it works: nitrate, not beet
Beets are rich in inorganic nitrate. So are arugula, spinach, celery and lettuce. Once you swallow it, something slightly strange happens: the nitrate is absorbed, concentrated in your saliva, and then bacteria living on the back of your tongue reduce it to nitrite. Swallow that, and the acid in your stomach helps convert it onward to nitric oxide, the molecule that signals blood vessels to relax.
That detour through your mouth is not trivia. Researchers tested it by having people use an antiseptic mouthwash, which wipes out those bacteria. The blood pressure effect of dietary nitrate was blunted, and in some studies abolished entirely. If you drink beet juice for your readings and then rinse with an antibacterial mouthwash, you may be undoing the thing you just did.
It also explains why the placebo in the 2015 trial was nitrate-depleted beet juice rather than a different drink. Same beets, same colour, same sugars, no nitrate, no effect. The beet is the delivery vehicle. The nitrate is the active part.
The gap between the studies and the supplement aisle
Here is where the research and the products stop lining up.
A serving of beetroot juice can contain somewhere between 230 and 1,000 mg of nitrate. Beet supplements in powdered form have been measured at 5 to 10 mg. Erica Godley, a clinical pharmacist at Novant Health, put it plainly in a piece reviewing these products: the capsules are typically expensive and probably will provide no benefit at such a small dose.
Even between powders the variation is wide. An analysis of commercial beetroot powders found nitrate concentrations ranging from 7.3 to 62.3 mg per gram, close to a ninefold spread, driven by beet variety, soil, drying method and storage. Drying and heat are hard on nitrate, and a powder that sat warm in a warehouse is not the same product as the one that was tested.
The number that is almost never on the label. Because nitrate content is not a required disclosure, most beet products list only how many milligrams of beetroot powder are in a capsule. That tells you the weight of the plant material, not the dose of the compound the research is about. A 500 mg beetroot capsule and 500 mg of studied nitrate are not remotely the same thing.
This is the same pattern we keep running into across this category, and it is why we look at disclosed doses before anything else when comparing the best supplements for high blood pressure. A label that hides the number is not neutral. It is a choice.
How to read a beet supplement label
If you want the thing the studies tested, these are the questions worth asking in order.
- Does it state nitrate content in mg? If not, you cannot compare it to any trial. This single question eliminates most products on the shelf.
- Is it juice, concentrate, or dried powder? Juice and concentrated shots are closer to what was studied. Dried powder in capsules is usually furthest away.
- Is the nitrate standardized? Standardization means the manufacturer tests and guarantees the amount rather than hoping the crop delivered it.
- How many capsules would it take? Do the arithmetic honestly. If a capsule carries 8 mg of nitrate and the trial used roughly 400 mg, no realistic serving closes that gap.
- Is it marketed as a treatment? Any product claiming to lower or treat high blood pressure is making a claim it is not allowed to make, which tells you something about the company.
Worth saying plainly: beetroot as food is cheap, and a portion of roasted beets or a glass of juice is not a supplement purchase at all. Several of the trials used ordinary shop-bought juice.
Where beetroot fits next to a full formula
Beetroot works on one mechanism. Nitrate becomes nitric oxide, vessels relax, pressure in the system eases. That mechanism is real and well mapped.
But blood pressure is not produced by one system. Vessel tone is one input. Fluid and sodium handling by the kidneys is another. Vascular stiffness, stress signalling and endothelial health all contribute. That is the case for formulas built from several botanicals rather than one hero ingredient, and it is the lens we use in our review of PressureCalmX, a multi-botanical blend, and in our comparison of single-ingredient versus multi-botanical supplements.
It cuts both ways, and we should be fair about it. A multi-ingredient blend can hide a low dose behind a long list just as easily as a beet capsule hides its nitrate. The point is not that more ingredients is automatically better. It is that one ingredient aimed at one mechanism is a narrow bet, and the narrower the bet, the more the dose has to be right.
Comparing Blood Pressure Formulas?
Our independent reviews go through ingredient lists, disclosed doses, and the gaps a proprietary blend leaves behind.
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Beets are food, and for most people they are unremarkable. A few things are worth knowing anyway.
Beeturia. Pink or red urine and stool after eating beets is common, harmless, and startling if nobody warned you. It is pigment, not blood. If you are unsure whether what you are seeing is beeturia, call your doctor rather than assume.
Oxalate and kidney stones. Beets are high in oxalate. If you have had calcium oxalate stones, large or daily amounts of beet juice are worth raising with your doctor.
Medication overlap. Nitric oxide is the pathway that nitrate medications for angina and PDE5 inhibitors act on. Stacking dietary nitrate on top of those without supervision can drop readings further than intended. The same caution applies if you already take blood pressure medication: the goal is a controlled number, not the lowest possible one.
And the thing that matters most. An average 4 to 8 mmHg from research is a meaningful nudge, and it is not treatment for hypertension. If your readings are high, the plan belongs to you and your doctor. Food and supplements sit alongside that plan, never instead of it.
Frequently asked questions
Does beetroot lower blood pressure?
In controlled trials, nitrate-rich beetroot juice has been associated with measurable reductions in blood pressure. A 2013 meta-analysis in the Journal of Nutrition found an average drop of about 4.4 mmHg systolic across studies, and a 2015 trial in Hypertension reported roughly 8/5 mmHg over four weeks in people with high readings. That is a real effect, but it is an average from research, not a promise for any individual.
How long does it take for beetroot to affect blood pressure?
Nitrate from beetroot converts to nitrite within a couple of hours, and studies measuring single servings see the largest change roughly two to three hours after drinking. The sustained effect is different: in the four-week trial, the reduction held throughout the period while participants kept drinking daily. When the juice stopped, the effect faded.
Is beetroot juice or beetroot powder better for blood pressure?
Juice carries far more nitrate. A serving of beetroot juice can contain roughly 230 to 1,000 mg of nitrate, while powdered beet supplements have been measured at only 5 to 10 mg. Since nitrate is the compound the research is built on, a capsule that delivers a fraction of the studied amount is unlikely to reproduce the studied result.
How much beetroot juice did the studies use?
The four-week trial used 250 mL of beetroot juice daily, standardized to 6.4 mmol of nitrate, which is about 400 mg. Its placebo was the same juice with the nitrate removed, which is a useful detail: the participants drinking nitrate-free beet juice did not see the same change, pointing to nitrate rather than beet itself.
Does mouthwash interfere with beetroot?
It can. Bacteria on the tongue perform the first step that converts dietary nitrate into nitrite. Studies using antiseptic mouthwash found that wiping out those bacteria blunted or abolished the blood pressure effect of dietary nitrate. If you are drinking beet juice for this reason, an antibacterial rinse right afterward works against you.
Can you take beetroot with blood pressure medication?
Ask your doctor first. Beetroot works through the same nitric oxide pathway that several cardiovascular drugs act on, and combining them without supervision can push readings lower than intended. This matters most with nitrates prescribed for angina and with PDE5 inhibitors. Never adjust or stop a prescription on your own.
What are the side effects of beetroot?
The common one is harmless and alarming: beeturia, pink or red urine and stool, which happens in a portion of people and is not bleeding. Beets are also high in oxalate, which matters if you have had calcium oxalate kidney stones. Large amounts of juice can cause stomach upset.
Is beetroot enough on its own?
Beetroot addresses one mechanism, nitric oxide and vessel relaxation. Blood pressure is driven by several systems at once, which is the argument behind multi-ingredient formulas rather than a single hero ingredient. Beetroot is a reasonable part of a diet, not a replacement for treatment or for the basics of sodium, weight, alcohol, sleep and movement.