What Are the Benefits of Beets? What Nutrition Science Generally Shows

Beets have moved well beyond their reputation as a polarizing salad ingredient. Research over the past two decades has identified several nutritionally significant compounds in beets, and scientists have been particularly interested in how those compounds behave in the body. Here's what the evidence generally shows — and why the picture looks different depending on who's eating them.

What Makes Beets Nutritionally Notable

Beets (Beta vulgaris) are a root vegetable that provides a range of nutrients in a relatively low-calorie package. A medium cooked beet (roughly 100g) typically contains:

Values are approximate and vary by preparation method and beet variety.

But the most studied component in beets isn't a traditional vitamin or mineral — it's a group of compounds called dietary nitrates.

Dietary Nitrates and What Research Shows About Blood Flow

Beets are one of the highest dietary sources of inorganic nitrate among commonly eaten vegetables. In the body, dietary nitrates are converted — first to nitrite, then to nitric oxide — through a process involving bacteria in the mouth and chemical reactions in the stomach and bloodstream.

Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule that plays a role in relaxing and widening blood vessels, a process called vasodilation. This is the mechanism behind much of the beet-related research.

Clinical studies — including several small but well-designed randomized controlled trials — have found that consuming concentrated beet juice is associated with modest, short-term reductions in blood pressure in healthy adults. The effect tends to be more pronounced in people with higher baseline blood pressure, and more limited in those with already-normal readings. These aren't large effects, and they don't apply uniformly across all populations studied.

Important caveat: Most of this research used beet juice concentrates rather than whole beets, at doses higher than typical dietary intake. Whether eating beets regularly produces the same outcomes as studied doses is not fully established.

Exercise Performance: What the Evidence Suggests 🏃

One of the more consistent areas of beet research involves athletic performance. Multiple studies — primarily in recreational athletes and cyclists — have found that nitrate-rich beet juice supplementation may reduce the oxygen cost of exercise at submaximal intensities, meaning the body can do the same amount of work using slightly less oxygen.

Some trials also reported modest improvements in time-to-exhaustion during endurance tasks. However:

• Effects appear stronger in recreational athletes than in elite competitors
• Benefits tend to be more measurable in aerobic, endurance-type activities than in strength or power-based tasks
• Results vary considerably across individuals and study designs

This remains an active area of research, and findings shouldn't be generalized beyond the specific conditions they were studied under.

Betalains: Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Properties

The deep red-purple color of beets comes from betalains — a class of phytonutrients that includes betacyanins (red-purple) and betaxanthins (yellow-orange). Betalains have demonstrated antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory and animal studies.

What that means in practical terms for humans is less clear. Most human research on betalains is observational or based on small trials, and translating antioxidant activity in a test tube to meaningful outcomes in the body is notoriously difficult. The research is promising but not yet definitive.

Folate: A Well-Established Nutrient Contribution 🌿

Beets are a genuinely good source of folate (vitamin B9), a B vitamin that plays essential roles in DNA synthesis, cell division, and the production of red blood cells. Folate is particularly well-studied in the context of pregnancy, where adequate intake is linked to normal neural tube development in early fetal development.

Unlike the nitrate research, folate's role in the body is thoroughly established. Whether someone gets meaningful folate from beets depends on how much they eat, how the beets are prepared (boiling reduces folate content more than roasting), and what the rest of their diet looks like.

Factors That Shape Individual Outcomes

The benefits someone might experience from eating beets are shaped by several variables:

• Oral bacteria: Nitrate-to-nitrite conversion begins in the mouth and requires specific bacterial populations. Antibacterial mouthwash has been shown in studies to significantly blunt the nitrate conversion process
• Existing diet: Someone already eating a high-nitrate diet (leafy greens, other vegetables) may see less additional effect from beets
• Digestive health and gut microbiome: Affects how compounds are processed and absorbed
• Kidney function: People with a history of kidney stones related to oxalates should be aware that beets are moderately high in oxalates, which can contribute to certain stone types
• Blood pressure medications: People on medications that affect blood pressure or blood flow should be aware that beet's nitrate content may have additive effects — this is a conversation for a healthcare provider
• Age and health status: Responses to dietary nitrates and other beet compounds vary across age groups and health conditions

A Note on "Beeturia"

Somewhere between 10–14% of people notice pink or red discoloration in urine or stool after eating beets — a harmless condition called beeturia. It's more common in people with low stomach acid or iron deficiency, and it's one of the clearer examples of how the same food can produce visibly different responses in different people.

What the Research Leaves Open

The science on beets is more developed than for many vegetables — particularly around nitrates and cardiovascular function — but most studies use concentrated extracts or juices rather than whole beets eaten as part of a mixed diet. How those findings translate to someone eating beets twice a week alongside a varied diet is genuinely uncertain.

How beets fit into any individual's nutritional picture depends on the rest of their diet, their health status, any medications they take, and factors like kidney function and gut health that vary significantly from person to person.