Beetroot vs ashwagandha: what the research does and doesn't show

The evidence doesn't support ranking beetroot against ashwagandha in general — they've been studied for different things, in different populations, at different doses, and nobody has tested them together or compared them head-to-head. Beetroot's evidence sits mainly in dietary nitrate, blood pressure and exercise performance; ashwagandha's sits mainly in stress and cortisol.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support the idea that beetroot and ashwagandha are interchangeable, or that one is a general-purpose "better" supplement than the other — "better" depends entirely on which outcome you mean, and the two haven't been tested on the same outcomes. It doesn't support taking them together as more effective than either alone; that combination has never been studied. And it doesn't support either as a treatment for a diagnosed condition — the trials below measured specific markers in specific populations, not general health or wellbeing.

What the trials found

Beetroot's evidence is built almost entirely around dietary nitrate. A 2024 meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials in 349 adults with hypertension found beetroot juice lowered clinical systolic blood pressure by about 5 mmHg on average versus placebo, water or no intake, at nitrate doses of 200-800 mg a day, with no significant effect on diastolic pressure and low-certainty overall evidence. A 2022 meta-analysis of 7 trials in 218 adults with hypertension found a similar systolic reduction (about 5 mmHg) at 70-250 mL of beetroot juice a day for 3-60 days, again with no significant diastolic change. On exercise, a 2025 umbrella review pooling 15 meta-analyses of beetroot juice and physical performance found mostly negligible-to-small improvements in strength, endurance and lactate tolerance, at nitrate doses of 515-1,017 mg a day. None of these trials measured stress, anxiety or cortisol.

Ashwagandha's evidence sits in a different domain. A 2012 randomized, placebo-controlled trial gave 64 adults with a history of chronic stress 600 mg a day of a concentrated ashwagandha root extract for 60 days and found significantly lower stress-scale scores and cortisol than placebo. A 2024 meta-analysis pooling 9 trials, 558 people total, found ashwagandha outperformed placebo on the Perceived Stress Scale, the Hamilton Anxiety Scale, and cortisol, though doses varied across the pooled trials rather than converging on one figure. None of ashwagandha's stress trials measured blood pressure or exercise performance.

No trial has given people beetroot and ashwagandha together, and no trial has put the two head-to-head on the same outcome. Whatever each literature suggests about its own domain, there's no dose-matched evidence for a combined product or a direct comparison between them.

Ingredient	Best evidence	Typical dose in trials	Domain measured
Beetroot	Meta-analyses of RCTs, hundreds of people	200-800 mg nitrate/day (juice)	Blood pressure, exercise performance
Ashwagandha	Meta-analysis of 9 RCTs (558 people)	~600 mg/day (varied across pooled trials)	Stress scores, anxiety scores, cortisol
Both together	No trial exists	—	—

Questions people ask

Is beetroot or ashwagandha better?

This page doesn't rank one against the other, because they've been studied for different outcomes in different populations. Beetroot's evidence is strongest on blood pressure and exercise measures; ashwagandha's is strongest on stress-scale scores and cortisol. Neither literature says anything about the other's domain.

Can you take beetroot and ashwagandha together?

No trial has tested the combination, so there's no evidence describing what it does beyond what either ingredient does alone. Ashwagandha in particular should be discussed with a doctor if you have a thyroid condition or take other medication.

Is beetroot or ashwagandha better for stress?

Ashwagandha has the established stress and cortisol evidence of the two — none of beetroot's larger trials measured stress or cortisol at all.

Is beetroot or ashwagandha better for exercise?

Beetroot's dietary-nitrate research includes exercise-performance trials, with mostly negligible-to-small effects. Ashwagandha's trials reviewed here didn't measure exercise performance, so there's no direct comparison to make on that outcome.

When to talk to a doctor

Diagnosed hypertension, a stress-related condition, or any change in how you're feeling day to day calls for medical guidance rather than a supplement search. Neither beetroot nor ashwagandha is a substitute for a prescribed medication, and nothing in the evidence above supports using either as one. If you take blood pressure medication, thyroid medication, or are pregnant or nursing, talk to a doctor before adding either.

Related reading: beetroot and blood pressure: what the research does and doesn't show, beetroot benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, and beetroot and stress: what the research does and doesn't show.