What is beetroot? A plain guide

Beetroot (Beta vulgaris) is the round root of a plant related to spinach and chard — eaten cooked, pickled, juiced, or dried into a powder. Raw beetroot is a source of folate, manganese, potassium, and dietary nitrate. Electric Tiger Beetroot provides 1300 mg of the whole dried root, milled into a capsule — one ingredient, nothing else added.

What beetroot actually is

Beetroot is the taproot of Beta vulgaris, the same species as Swiss chard and sugar beet, in the same family as spinach and quinoa. The deep red-purple color comes from betalains, a family of pigments (the specific one in beets is called betanin) that are unrelated to the more common plant pigments found in, say, blueberries or carrots. Sold fresh, canned, pickled, juiced, or dried and milled into a powder, it's eaten as a vegetable in every one of those forms — a supplement capsule is simply the dried-powder version, concentrated by removing the water.

What's actually in it

A raw beet, about 100 g (a small-to-medium root), provides roughly 109 mcg of folate (about a quarter of the daily value), 0.33 mg of manganese, and 325 mg of potassium, alongside modest vitamin C, fiber, and natural sugar (USDA FoodData Central). It also contains dietary nitrate, a compound naturally present in many vegetables at levels that vary by growing conditions, soil, and variety, rather than a fixed amount. A 2023 lab analysis measured nitrate and nitrite content across 50 commercial beetroot-based supplements and 20 beetroot samples and found that a serving of fresh beetroot generally supplies far more nitrate than most beetroot supplements do — and that the amount varies widely from product to product.

A whole dried root, not a nitrate extract

Electric Tiger Beetroot is organic beetroot powder — the whole root, dried and milled — not a nitrate-standardized extract or a concentrated juice. Drying removes water and concentrates what's left (fiber, minerals, pigments), but it doesn't create or guarantee a specific nitrate dose, and we don't measure or state one on the label. As a rough sense of scale only (our own arithmetic, not a lab measurement): fresh beetroot is mostly water, so 1300 mg of dried powder works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 g of fresh beetroot before drying — a thin slice, not a whole beet. That distinction matters because most of the beetroot research uses concentrated juice at doses well above what a whole-food powder capsule provides; see beetroot benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for what those trials actually tested.

What our label provides

Electric Tiger Beetroot provides 1300 mg of whole organic beetroot powder per two-capsule serving, taken once a day, 20-30 minutes before a meal with 8 oz of water. Other ingredients are limited to the vegetable capsule shell (hypromellose), microcrystalline cellulose, and magnesium stearate. It's vegan, gluten-free, and allergen-free, 30 servings a bottle, as low as $14.38 a bottle on subscription ($0.48 a serving).

Questions people ask

What does beetroot taste like?

Earthy and sweet, with a mineral, slightly bitter edge that some people describe as tasting like soil — a byproduct of geosmin, a compound beets share with a few other root vegetables. Roasting or cooking mellows the bitterness and brings out more of the sweetness; raw and juiced forms taste stronger and more earthy.

Can dogs have beetroot?

In small, occasional amounts, plain cooked beetroot is generally considered fine for most dogs, but it isn't a food we formulate or test for pets, and a vet is the right call for anything beyond an occasional bite — especially around portion size and any dog with kidney issues, since beets are relatively high in oxalates (more on that in who should not take beetroot).

What is beetroot juice?

Beetroot juice is pressed or blended liquid from the fresh root, sometimes concentrated further. Most of the performance research uses this juice form at specific, stated nitrate doses — a different product from a dried, milled powder capsule like ours, in both form and, most likely, nitrate content.

What does beetroot do in the body?

As a food, beetroot contributes folate, manganese, potassium, and other nutrients like any vegetable does. Its nitrate content is the subject of a separate, larger body of research — mostly on exercise performance and blood flow — that we cover on its own page rather than here: see beetroot benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for what that research found and where it falls short of our product.

Which beetroot supplement should you choose?

It depends on what you're weighing — form (powder, extract, or juice), the amount per serving, whether a nitrate dose is actually stated, and price per serving. How to choose a good beetroot supplement walks through the criteria, including where our own label does and doesn't measure up.

Related reading: how much beetroot should you take a day, beetroot side effects, and how to choose a good beetroot supplement.