Beet Juice Boosts Blood Chemicals — But Not Everyone Responds
Efficacy and Variability in Plasma Nitrite Levels during Long-Term Supplementation with Nitrate Containing Beetroot Juice
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The acute nitrite response didn’t improve over 12 weeks — even though fasting levels rose.
Scientists expected the body to adapt and convert nitrate more efficiently over time — but it didn’t. The 273% spike on day 1 was the same as on day 84.
Practical Takeaways
Try beetroot juice for 4–6 weeks and track how you feel — energy, blood pressure, exercise recovery — before deciding if it’s right for you.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The acute nitrite response didn’t improve over 12 weeks — even though fasting levels rose.
Scientists expected the body to adapt and convert nitrate more efficiently over time — but it didn’t. The 273% spike on day 1 was the same as on day 84.
Practical Takeaways
Try beetroot juice for 4–6 weeks and track how you feel — energy, blood pressure, exercise recovery — before deciding if it’s right for you.
Publication
Journal
Journal of Dietary Supplements
Year
2022
Authors
G. Miller, Summer L Collins, J. Ives, A. Williams, S. Basu, D. Kim-Shapiro, M. Berry
Related Content
Claims (5)
If you drink a small glass of beetroot juice every day for three months, your body’s nitrate and nitrite levels go up a lot—this means your body might be making more of a helpful molecule that supports blood flow.
When people drink beetroot juice every day for 12 weeks, some see a big jump in nitrite levels in their blood after drinking it, others barely see any change—even the same person might respond differently each time. A few people just don’t respond at all.
Drinking beetroot juice that doesn't have nitrate in it every day for 12 weeks doesn't change the levels of nitrate or nitrite in your blood — so if you do see changes with regular beetroot juice, it's because of the nitrate, not the beetroot itself.
Even if healthy middle-aged and older adults take the same amount of beetroot juice every day, some people still get more nitrite in their blood than others—so something else, like their mouth bacteria or genes, must be why they respond differently.
Drinking beetroot juice with 380 mg of nitrate every day for 12 weeks doesn’t make your body respond any stronger to it over time—even though nitrate levels in your blood go up, your body doesn’t get better at using it or start reacting less.