Beets deliver an unusually heavy dose of dietary nitrate, and the body treats that nitrate as raw material for nitric oxide. That short-lived molecule signals the smooth muscle in artery walls to relax, which widens the vessels and eases the pressure blood exerts against them. For people whose numbers sit too high, the shift shows up on a cuff.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2024 in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases pooled 11 trials with 349 hypertensive patients and found that beetroot juice cut clinic systolic blood pressure by 5.31 mmHg on average compared with placebo. Daily nitrate doses ran from roughly 200 to 800 milligrams.
Why the vessels react
The reaction starts in the mouth. Bacteria on the tongue reduce a share of the dietary nitrate to nitrite, and the body then converts nitrite into nitric oxide. Wider arteries mean less resistance, and less resistance means a lower reading.
The effect can arrive within hours of a dose. An earlier meta-analysis of regular beet juice consumption logged an average systolic drop of about 3.55 mmHg and a diastolic drop of 1.32 mmHg across mixed groups of participants. Higher doses in the 2024 review did not always yield bigger drops, hinting at a ceiling somewhere in the middle of the tested range.
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Small numbers, useful numbers
The 2024 pooled analysis found the systolic effect held over interventions up to 90 days but did not translate into lasting changes in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure. Diastolic pressure was not meaningfully affected either.
Even a 5 mmHg dent in systolic pressure is roughly what a low-sodium diet or an added exercise habit can deliver. The American Heart Association has pointed to about a cup of beetroot juice a day as a reasonable target, in line with smaller trials in the same range.
Fresh, roasted or from a can
Preparation matters. Nitrates are water-soluble and heat-sensitive, so raw and lightly cooked beets hold on to more of them than boiled or heavily processed versions. Canned beets are still fine, though Cleveland Clinic dietitian Taylor Flannery recommends picking varieties with little or no added sodium so the mineral load does not undo the blood pressure benefit.
More nitric oxide also means more blood flow to working muscles, which is why beetroot juice has become a fixture in endurance nutrition. Randomized trials in cyclists and runners have logged modest gains in oxygen efficiency and time to exhaustion at moderate intensity.
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When to hold back
Beets carry a lot of oxalates, natural compounds that can bind with calcium to form the most common type of kidney stone. The National Kidney Foundation lists beets among the high-oxalate foods to watch, alongside spinach, rhubarb, and Swiss chard, and suggests eating them with calcium-rich foods so the two bind in the gut before reaching the kidneys. Boiling can also lower a beet's oxalate load.
Anyone already on blood pressure medication or with a history of stones should talk with a clinician before adding daily beet juice, since the vessel-relaxing effect can stack with drugs already doing the same job. For most healthy adults, a few servings a week is a low-risk way to nudge cardiovascular numbers in the right direction.
Also read: Researchers warn: Nearly 8 in 10 young adults have early signs of heart disease
This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.