Researchers gave women a drink with 400 mg of nitrate (from beetroot juice) to see how it affected their blood pressure and nitrate/nitrite levels.

Drinking beetroot juice every day with at least 397 mg of nitrate can lower high blood pressure as much as common blood pressure pills do.

Drinking beetroot juice every day for a month is safe for people with high blood pressure—it doesn’t cause any dangerous side effects, and the only harmless things you might notice are pink urine or oddly colored poop.

Drinking beetroot juice with 800 mg of nitrate after working out might lower blood pressure by about 9 points in women over 50 who have high blood pressure, helping their heart recover better.

If older adults with high blood pressure drink beetroot juice every day for a month, their body shows more of certain chemicals in their blood and saliva that help relax blood vessels — which means their body is using a natural pathway to make nitric oxide.

Drinking beetroot juice once can temporarily make blood flow better in the arms of older people with high blood pressure, but if they drink it every day, that boost goes away after a while.