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Beetroot Supplements: The Nitrate That Isn't on the Label

By Erin Rose · Updated · Methodology

Educational overview — not medical advice. Beetroot is generally well tolerated; the cautions that matter are kidney stones (oxalate) and additive blood-pressure lowering — see for blood pressure.

Beetroot's active ingredient is inorganic nitrate — the body turns nitrate → nitrite → nitric oxide (Lundberg 2008). That nitric oxide modestly lowers blood pressure (systolic ~−3.9 mmHg; He 2021) and gives a small, real endurance benefit (Poon 2025) — but not strength. The studied dose is ~6–13 mmol nitrate/day (~372–800 mg). The catch that defines this whole category: almost no product discloses its nitrate — of 16 we track, only 1 prints an actual nitrate figure.

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The nitrate label trap"Beetroot 1,000 mg" is whole-root weight, not nitrate. Independent testing found nitrate varying >200-fold. Why the big number on the front is not the dose. How much to take~6–13 mmol nitrate/day (~372–800 mg); 1 mmol = 62 mg. Minimum effective ~6 mmol; plateau ~8.4 mmol. Plus a nitrate converter. Best beetroot (by disclosure)Every product ranked by whether it discloses nitrate, then cost per 100 mg nitrate. Most are incomputable — and that gap is the story. For blood pressureThe real evidence (systolic ~−3.9 mmHg), how durable it is, and the oxalate/kidney-stone and PDE5/BP-med safety cautions.

What beetroot is (and what actually does the work)

Beetroot is marketed for "nitric oxide," and that part is true — but the ingredient responsible is inorganic nitrate (NO3-) concentrated in the root. Once swallowed, oral bacteria and then the body reduce it along the nitrate → nitrite → nitric oxide pathway (Lundberg 2008). Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels and improves the oxygen cost of exercise. What does not do the work: the beetroot mass itself, the red betalain pigment, or the antioxidants. That single fact — the dose is nitrate, not beetroot — is why the milligram number on almost every label is close to meaningless.

Does it work? (the short version)

Yes, modestly, in two places. Blood pressure: a meta-analysis of 22 studies found beetroot lowered systolic pressure by about 3.9 mmHg (and diastolic ~2.6 mmHg), with the largest effect in adults over 65, with obesity, or with prehypertension (He 2021). Endurance: a 2025 umbrella review of 20 systematic reviews (180 studies) found genuine ergogenic effects on time-to-exhaustion, distance, and muscular endurance — more pronounced at ≥6 mmol/day taken for more than 3 days — but no effect on strength, with the underlying evidence graded low to critically low (Poon 2025). Small and specific, not dramatic.

The one-line takeaway The evidence is for a nitrate dose you mostly can't verify from the bottle. Of the 16 products we track, only 1 discloses an actual nitrate figure and 15 leave it a black box — so shop on disclosure first, not on the whole-root milligram number.

The buying problem: nitrate, not milligrams

Two traps. First, the label: "beetroot 1,000 mg," "20:1 extract," and "6,000 mg equivalent" all describe root or blend weight, not nitrate — and independent lab testing has found nitrate varying more than 200-fold between products (the nitrate label trap). Second, the comparison: because nitrate is almost never disclosed, cost per unit of active nitrate is literally incomputable for most products, so the usual value ranking breaks down (best beetroot by disclosure). The honest move is to prioritize any product that actually prints a nitrate figure — even though, today, the one that does still falls short of the studied dose.

Frequently asked questions

What is the active ingredient in beetroot?

Inorganic nitrate (NO3-), converted nitrate → nitrite → nitric oxide (Lundberg 2008). Not the beetroot mass, pigment, or antioxidants — which is why whole-root milligrams don't tell you the dose that matters.

Does beetroot actually work?

Modestly. Blood pressure: systolic ~−3.9 mmHg, biggest in older/obese/prehypertensive people (He 2021). Endurance: real but small, stronger at ≥6 mmol/day for 3+ days; no strength effect; evidence quality low (Poon 2025).

How much should I take?

Measured in nitrate: ~6–13 mmol/day (~372–800 mg; 1 mmol = 62 mg). Minimum effective ~6 mmol (372 mg); plateau ~8.4 mmol (~520 mg). But most labels don't disclose nitrate, so you usually can't confirm the dose.

Why is comparing products so hard?

The number that matters — nitrate per serving — is almost never printed; testing found >200-fold variation. Only 1 of 16 products we track discloses a nitrate figure (and even that is ~6% of the studied floor), so a cost-per-active ranking is impossible for the rest.

Related guides

  • L-Citrulline — the other nitric-oxide precursor (with its own label trap)
  • Taurine — a sulfur amino acid with real blood-pressure evidence
  • Beta-Alanine — the carnosine-loading amino acid for 1–4 min efforts

Sources

  1. Lundberg JO, et al. "The nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway in physiology and therapeutics." Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2008. PMID: 18167491
  2. Poon ET, et al. "Dietary Nitrate Supplementation and Exercise Performance: An Umbrella Review." Sports Med. 2025. PMID: 40085422
  3. He Y, et al. "The effect of beetroot supplementation on blood pressure in older adults: a meta-analysis." Nitric Oxide. 2021. PMID: 33905826
  4. Full product dataset: /beetroot/cost-by-brand.json (CC BY 4.0).