Beetroot
Supplement
botanical / nitrate
fitnessheart & metabolic
Not medical advice. Check with your doctor or pharmacist before you start, stop or change the timing of anything you take.
How to use
What it’s for
Endurance in time trials · small blood-pressure fall
When to take
Performance trials dosed once 2.5–3 hours before exercise
Pros & cons
Pros
- ODS: improved time trials and time to exhaustion
- ODS: best in recreationally active nonathletes
- 75 RCTS: nitrate dose lowered systolic and diastolic bp
Cons
- ODS: beetroot can colour the urine pink or red
- Bp fall per mmol of nitrate is small (−0.28 mmhg acute)
- Higher-quality population-specific trials still needed
Sources
- NIH ODS — Dietary Supplements for Exercise and Athletic Performance (beetroot: mechanism) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“Ingested nitrate might enhance exercise and athletic performance … primarily through its conversion into nitric oxide in the body”
- NIH ODS — Exercise and Athletic Performance (beetroot: efficacy) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“Might improve performance and endurance to some degree in time trials and time-to-exhaustion tests among runners, swimmers, rowers, and cyclists; appears to be most effective in recreationally active nonathletes”
- NIH ODS — Exercise and Athletic Performance (beetroot: dose and timing) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“500 ml/day (about 2 cups) of beetroot juice taken once (about 2.5 to 3 hours before exercise) … about 5–11 mmol (or 310–682 mg) nitrate”
- NIH ODS — Exercise and Athletic Performance (beetroot: safety) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“Studies have not identified any safety concerns with the consumption of beetroot juice in moderate amounts (about 2 cups/day) … Beetroot consumption can color the urine pink or red due to the excretion of red pigments in the beets”
- Plasma nitrate, dietary nitrate, blood pressure, and vascular health biomarkers: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of RCTs (Norouzzadeh et al., Nutrition Journal 2025) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“Our analysis of 75 RCTs involving 1823 participants revealed … Per each mmol increase in NO3 intake, a reduction in systolic BP levels was observed in the acute (WMD: -0.28mmHg) … a decrease in diastolic BP for each mmol increase”
- Norouzzadeh et al., Nutrition Journal 2025 — conclusion · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“We observed dose-dependent increases in plasma NO3 and NO2 levels, along with consequent reductions in BP … Future high-quality, population-specific studies with optimized dietary NO3 dosages are needed to strengthen the certainty of the evidence”
- HSA — Guidelines on Prohibited and Restricted Ingredients in Health Supplements and Traditional Medicines, GL-CHPB-1-012 Rev 001 (Oct 2025) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“The objective of this guideline is to highlight the substances of concern when used in HS and TM and is not meant to be an exhaustive list [beetroot / Beta vulgaris and nitrate not listed in Annex A or B]”
- iHerb Singapore — Greens & Superfoods > Beet category (SG$ pricing, default order) · read 2026-08-27
what it says
“California Gold Nutrition, Superfoods, Organic Beet Juice Powder … Nutricost, Beet Root, 180 Capsules … Force Factor, Total Beets®, Organic Beetroot Powder … MegaFood, Iron Blood Builder™ … Nature's Truth, Nitric Oxide Max™, Beet Root+ with Nitrates”
Updated 2026-08-30. Every line above traces to a numbered source. Kozen-X is not a medical device and does not give medical advice. It lists what published sources have written down — nothing more. A pair not listed is unrecorded, not cleared. Before you start, stop or re-time anything, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.