In 30 seconds
- Beetroot is one of the vegetables richest in nitrate. Your body converts it into nitrite and then into nitric oxide, a molecule involved in blood flow and in how your muscles use oxygen.
- Meta-analyses find a small but real effect on performance: more time to exhaustion and around 5% more muscle power. In elite athletes the effect practically disappears.
- Studies use around 6-8 mmol of nitrate (roughly 370-500 mg), taken 2-3 hours before exercise. That is one concentrated juice shot or a generous plate of leafy greens.
- Antiseptic mouthwash interrupts the process: the bacteria in your mouth are essential for making use of nitrate.
Beetroot has gone from side dish to the water bottles of many athletes and onto every list of “trendy” foods. The difference from other trends is that beetroot has dozens of clinical trials behind it. Here is what they say, without overstating or understating it.
Why beetroot is special: nitrate
Beetroot is one of the vegetables with the most nitrate, along with rocket, spinach, lettuce and celery. Around 80% of the nitrate in your diet comes from vegetables 8.
What is interesting is what your body does with it, and one of the steps happens in your mouth:
- Beetroot and leafy greensNitrate (NO₃⁻)You absorb it in the gut and it passes into the blood.
- SalivaMouth bacteriaThe salivary glands concentrate it and bacteria on the tongue convert it.
- NitriteNitrite (NO₂⁻)It returns to the blood when you swallow.
- Muscle and blood vesselsNitric oxide (NO)It forms mainly where oxygen is low, such as in a muscle working flat out.
Nitric oxide is involved in widening the blood vessels, in blood flow to the muscles and in how efficiently your mitochondria use oxygen. That is why beetroot has attracted so much interest from sports researchers.
Nitrate meta-analyses
What nitrate adds to performance, on average
Beetroot and exercise performance
Endurance: more time to exhaustion
A 2021 meta-analysis pooled 73 trials with 1,061 healthy people 2. With nitrate, participants lasted on average 25 seconds longer in time-to-exhaustion tests, produced slightly more power (+4.6 W) and used a little less oxygen at the same pace. In time trials, however, there were no clear differences. The authors rate the quality of the evidence as low to moderate.
Another meta-analysis, with 80 studies, reached a similar conclusion: the effect is small but real 1. It adds an important nuance: in endurance athletes with a VO2max of 65 ml/kg/min or more, the effect disappears. The better trained you are, the less room beetroot has to help.
A systematic review by Spanish researchers analysed 23 studies in endurance athletes 4. It concludes that a single dose improves efficiency and time to exhaustion at submaximal intensities, and that taking it for several days in a row could also help at higher intensities.
Strength and power: around 5% more
It is not all about endurance. A meta-analysis with individual data from 268 people found that nitrate increases maximal muscle power by around 5%, with no differences by age or sex 3. Interestingly, the effect was greater with a single dose than with several days in a row.
What the reference bodies say
The International Olympic Committee, in its consensus statement on supplements, places nitrate among the few with good evidence of benefit for performance, along with caffeine, creatine and some buffers 11. The Australian Institute of Sport includes it in its group A, the one with the strongest scientific support 12.
Beetroot and blood pressure
A meta-analysis of 16 trials with 254 people found that nitrate and beetroot juice lower systolic blood pressure by around 4.4 mmHg on average 6. The more nitrate, the greater the effect. Diastolic pressure barely changed.
These are short studies, lasting from hours to two weeks, so we do not know what happens in the long term. And if you take blood pressure medication, check with your doctor before taking concentrated beetroot every day.
Beyond nitrate: betalains
Beetroot's colour comes from betalains, above all betanin. In the laboratory and in animals they show antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity 9. Beetroot also provides vitamin C, carotenoids and polyphenols.
Caution is called for here: most of these results come from cell or animal studies, and the body absorbs only a very small part of the betalains. It is a promising field, still a long way from firm conclusions.
What about the brain?
Some studies have explored whether nitrate improves blood flow to the brain. In one of them, a single 450 ml dose of juice with around 5.5 mmol of nitrate changed blood flow in the prefrontal cortex and improved the result in a mental arithmetic test 10. It is an interesting finding, but an isolated one: it does not yet allow us to talk about an effect on concentration.
Nitrate per dose
How much nitrate the studies use
How much beetroot you need
This is the key point that many articles skip: the effects appear at specific doses.
| Level | Nitrate per kg | Vegetables |
|---|---|---|
| Very high | over 2,500 mg | Beetroot and beetroot juice, celery, lettuce, rocket, spinach |
| High | 1,000-2,500 mg | Chinese cabbage, celeriac, endive, leek, parsley, kohlrabi |
| Moderate | 500-1,000 mg | Cabbage, dill, turnip, carrot juice |
| Low | 200-500 mg | Broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, cucumber, pumpkin |
Source: Australian Institute of Sport, AIS Sports Supplement Framework.
- Amount: around 6-8 mmol of nitrate, that is, roughly 370-500 mg 12. Below 5-6 mmol, the effect fades; and taking twice as much adds nothing 5 12.
- Timing: 2-3 hours before exercise, which is when nitrite in the blood peaks 5.
- Over several days: taking it for about 6 days in a row seems to help at high intensities too 4.
How do you reach that amount? A 70 ml shot of concentrated beetroot juice provides around 400 mg of nitrate 12. With regular juice or cooked beetroot, the amount varies a lot depending on the variety and how it was grown, so it is hard to know how much you are getting. Leafy greens, such as rocket or spinach, are also very rich in nitrate.
A week of mouthwash
What happened with chlorhexidine mouthwash
The mistake that cancels it out: mouthwash
Remember step two: without the bacteria in your mouth, nitrate is not converted into nitrite. In one study, a week of rinsing with chlorhexidine reduced nitrite production in the mouth by 90%, reduced nitrite in the blood by 25% and raised blood pressure by between 2 and 3.5 mmHg 7.
If you take beetroot for your training, avoid antiseptic mouthwash in the hours beforehand.
Precautions
- Pink urine or stools. This is beeturia, and it is harmless.
- Digestive discomfort. Some athletes feel concentrated juice in their stomach. Try it during a training session, never for the first time in a competition.
- Sugar. Juices contain the natural sugar of beetroot; bear this in mind if you are watching your sugar intake 9.
- Nitrate and safety. The European Food Safety Authority concluded that the benefits of eating vegetables far outweigh the possible risk from their nitrate 13.
- Medication. If you take blood pressure medication or nitrates for your heart, check with your doctor first.
Beetroot before, hydration during
If you want to try beetroot, the practical way is a concentrated juice shot or a generous plate of leafy greens 2-3 hours before training. And during the session, what matters is replacing fluid and electrolytes.
For that we have Nitrus Isotonic: five electrolytes, all 13 vitamins, BCAAs, glutamine and taurine. It contains a touch of beetroot powder, mainly for its colour; for the nitrate used in studies, the concentrated shot is your ally.
Frequently asked questions
Does beetroot increase nitric oxide?
Yes, indirectly. The nitrate in beetroot reaches your saliva, bacteria in your mouth turn it into nitrite and your body converts part of that nitrite into nitric oxide. That is why, after drinking beetroot juice, nitrite in the blood rises and peaks at 2-3 hours.
How much beetroot juice should you drink before training?
Studies use between 6 and 8 mmol of nitrate, roughly 370-500 mg, 2-3 hours before exercise. It depends a lot on the product: some concentrated shots provide around 400 mg in 70 ml. Choose one that states its nitrate content.
Why does my urine turn pink?
It is the betalains, the pigments that give beetroot its colour. It is called beeturia, it is harmless and it goes away when you stop eating or drinking beetroot.
Does it help if I am an elite athlete?
Much less. In the Senefeld (2020) meta-analysis, the effect did not appear in athletes with a VO2max of 65 ml/kg/min or more. The people who notice beetroot most are recreational or trained athletes, not professional endurance athletes.
Can Nitrus work as a beetroot shot?
Nitrus is a hydration drink with 5 electrolytes and all 13 vitamins, plus BCAAs and taurine, and it contains a touch of beetroot powder, mainly for its colour. If you are looking for the nitrate dose used in studies, take it separately with a concentrated shot or with nitrate-rich vegetables, and have Nitrus while you train.
Sources
- Senefeld JW, Wiggins CC, Regimbal RJ, et al. Ergogenic effect of nitrate supplementation: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2020;52(10):2250-2261. View publication
- Gao C, Gupta S, Adli T, et al. The effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on endurance exercise performance and cardiorespiratory measures in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2021;18:55. View publication
- Coggan AR, Baranauskas MN, Hinrichs RJ, Liu Z, Carter SJ. Effect of dietary nitrate on human muscle power: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2021;18(1):66. View publication
- Domínguez R, Cuenca E, Maté-Muñoz JL, et al. Effects of beetroot juice supplementation on cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes. A systematic review. Nutrients. 2017;9(1):43. View publication
- Wylie LJ, Kelly J, Bailey SJ, et al. Beetroot juice and exercise: pharmacodynamic and dose-response relationships. J Appl Physiol. 2013;115(3):325-336. View publication
- Siervo M, Lara J, Ogbonmwan I, Mathers JC. Inorganic nitrate and beetroot juice supplementation reduces blood pressure in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Nutr. 2013;143(6):818-826. View publication
- Kapil V, Haydar SM, Pearl V, et al. Physiological role for nitrate-reducing oral bacteria in blood pressure control. Free Radic Biol Med. 2013;55:93-100. View publication
- Hord NG, Tang Y, Bryan NS. Food sources of nitrates and nitrites: the physiologic context for potential health benefits. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;90(1):1-10. View publication
- Clifford T, Howatson G, West DJ, Stevenson EJ. The potential benefits of red beetroot supplementation in health and disease. Nutrients. 2015;7(4):2801-2822. View publication
- Wightman EL, Haskell-Ramsay CF, Thompson KG, et al. Dietary nitrate modulates cerebral blood flow parameters and cognitive performance in humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover investigation. Physiol Behav. 2015;149:149-158. View publication
- Maughan RJ, Burke LM, Dvorak J, et al. IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. Br J Sports Med. 2018;52(7):439-455. View publication
- Australian Institute of Sport. Beetroot juice / nitrate. AIS Sports Supplement Framework, grupo A. View publication
- European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Nitrate in vegetables: scientific opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain. EFSA Journal. 2008;6(6):689. View publication
Information based on published studies. It does not replace the advice of a doctor or registered dietitian. The results describe what was measured in each study, not the properties of any specific product. A varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle are important.
