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.

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.

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.

If your body gets better at using natural compounds from vegetables like beets to make a helpful gas called NO, it might help your metabolism, heart, and kidneys work better.

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 supplements for 16 weeks doesn’t seem to change cholesterol, good/bad fats in the blood, or inflammation markers in people with early high blood pressure—so it doesn’t help those things in this group.