Beetroot benefits: what the research does and doesn't show

The evidence doesn't support beetroot, in the forms and amounts most people actually take, as a meaningful performance or health booster. The largest pooled analysis on the topic — 15 meta-analyses covering muscle strength, endurance and lactate tolerance — found effects that were mostly negligible to small, and every trial in it used concentrated beetroot juice at a stated nitrate dose, not a dried, whole-food powder.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support beetroot, in any form, as something that reliably improves athletic performance, endurance, or blood flow for a general population taking it casually. It doesn't support a whole dried beetroot powder — the form most beetroot capsules on the market are sold as — producing the same effect as the concentrated juice used in almost all of the research below; no trial found tested a dried, milled beetroot powder capsule specifically. And it doesn't support any of the marketing language ("8,000 mg equivalent," "20:1 concentrate") some brands use to describe potency, which describes a concentration ratio, not a measured nitrate dose.

What the trials found

A 2025 umbrella review pooled 15 existing meta-analyses on beetroot juice and physical performance, comparing professional athletes with healthy non-athletes. Across the pooled data, beetroot juice was associated with a statistically significant but negligible improvement in muscle strength (standardized mean difference 0.08) and in VO2max/aerobic endurance (SMD 0.16) in healthy adults, and a small improvement in lactate tolerance measures — time-to-exhaustion and a repeated-sprint test (SMD 0.25-0.27). Broken out by population, professional athletes showed a small strength benefit (SMD 0.27) while non-athletes showed a small aerobic-endurance benefit (SMD 0.26) — different subgroups responded differently, and none of the effect sizes were large. The dose-response analysis found a nitrate intake of 515-1,017 mg a day produced a statistically significant effect, but the effect size at that dose was itself negligible (SMD 0.14). Timing mattered less than consistency: both a single dose 2-3 hours before exercise and daily dosing for 3 or more days produced a measurable effect, though the acute (single-dose) protocol had a slightly larger effect than the chronic one.

Two things limit how far this reaches. First, every trial in the review used beetroot juice, most of it concentrated specifically to deliver a stated nitrate amount — a different product, in both form and dose, from a dried, milled whole-root powder capsule. Second, a separate 2023 lab analysis of 50 commercial beetroot-based supplements found nitrate content varied widely from product to product, and that most delivered far less nitrate per serving than a serving of fresh beetroot itself, let alone the 515-1,017 mg range associated with an effect in the trials above; the highest-dose product tested still supplied only 169 mg per daily dose. Nobody has published a nitrate measurement for our beetroot capsule, so we can't say where it falls — but the category-wide pattern makes it unlikely that a whole-powder capsule reaches trial-level nitrate doses.

Outcome	Population	Effect size	Read as
Muscle strength	Pooled (mixed)	SMD 0.08	Negligible
Muscle strength	Professional athletes	SMD 0.27	Small
VO2max / aerobic endurance	Healthy non-athletes	SMD 0.16-0.26	Negligible to small
Time-to-exhaustion / repeated sprints	Healthy adults	SMD 0.25-0.27	Small
Chronic dosing (≥3 days)	Pooled	SMD 0.13	Negligible

Questions people ask

What are beetroot's benefits?

Beyond its nutrient content as a food (folate, manganese, potassium), the research specifically on beetroot's nitrate content is mostly about exercise performance, and the 2025 umbrella review above found effects ranging from negligible to small — real in a statistical sense, but not large, and tested using concentrated juice rather than a whole-food powder capsule.

Is beetroot good for men, specifically?

The umbrella review above didn't break its results down by sex, so there's no separate finding for men versus women. The subgroup differences it did find were between professional athletes and non-athletes, not between men and women.

Does beetroot juice help athletic performance more than beetroot powder?

The research base is almost entirely built on juice, dosed to a stated nitrate amount, so that's the form and dose the "small to negligible improvement" findings above actually describe. Whether a dried powder capsule reproduces any part of that effect hasn't been tested directly, and lab testing of commercial powder-based supplements suggests most fall well short of the nitrate doses used in the juice trials.

Do "8,000 mg equivalent" or "20:1 concentrate" claims mean a beetroot supplement is more potent?

Those describe a concentration ratio applied during manufacturing, not a measured nitrate dose in the finished capsule, and none of the research above tested products marketed that way. How to choose a good beetroot supplement covers what to look for instead.

What does beetroot do for the body that isn't about performance?

As a food, beetroot's most well-established value is as a source of folate, manganese and potassium (see what is beetroot). The nitrate-and-performance research above is a separate, narrower question from the nutrient content of the vegetable itself.

When to talk to a doctor

Beetroot and beetroot supplements are not a treatment for a heart, circulation or performance problem, and nothing in the research above supports using one as a substitute for medical care. If you're being evaluated for an athletic performance issue, an exercise limitation, or any cardiovascular concern, that's a conversation for a doctor. If you take a prescription medication, talk to a doctor before adding any new supplement.