Taking nitrate supplements doesn't change your heart rate, which is good because it means the blood pressure-lowering effect isn't coming from changes in how fast your heart beats.

We don’t know much about whether eating or drinking things with inorganic nitrate—like some cured meats or vegetables—over many years can lead to heart attacks or heart-related deaths.

If you eat a little more nitrate-rich food like spinach or beets each day, the amount of nitrate in your blood goes up by a predictable amount, which might help your heart by turning that nitrate into a substance that relaxes your blood vessels.

Eating more nitrate-rich vegetables for 16 weeks doesn’t lower blood pressure or make arteries stiffer in people with early high blood pressure—so it doesn’t help these heart health markers in the short term.

Taking nitrate-rich supplements every day can lower blood pressure just as much in people who aren't on blood pressure meds as in those who are—meaning it might help even more on top of their regular medicine.

Eating a little more nitrate-rich food each day—like spinach or beets—might help your arteries bounce back better from heartbeats, lowering the pressure in your main arteries and making your heart work a bit less hard.