Posted on August 12, 2015 by Jenny Cromack

Recently I’ve seen a sweeping number of individuals juicing beetroot, it certainly looks impressive. The question though is what are the benefits of beetroot juice? Is beetroot all that?

Answering this is a little more complex than certain mainstream magazines would have you believe. Anciently beetroots were used in medicine for fevers, skin problems and constipation… I’ll leave that there. Common media sources would have you believe that beetroot juice can lower blood pressure and improve endurance performance. What does the research say…?

In a recent review Lara et al., (2013) examined whether beetroot juice supplementation can reduce blood pressure. The rationale behind beetroot juice lowering blood pressure lays in the understanding that the body converts nitrates into nitric oxide, which has been shown to reduce blood pressure. The meta analysis reviewed 16 research papers over the period of 2006 to 2012 and examined protocols of supplementation from 2 hours to 15 days. The review of all papers showed a very modest trend towards a reduction in systolic blood pressure around an average 5%, however diastolic showed only a trend of a 1.1% reduction. In summary Lara et al., (2013) state that such reductions observed above may reduce the likelihood of stroke or mortality by cardiovascular disease by 14%.

So now that we know there is a modest positive effect of beetroot juice on blood pressure what about exercise performance? Burke et al., (2013) recently examined the effect of beetroot supplementation on exercise performance. Burke et al., (2013) reviewed 17 studies, once again this involved ingestion protocols of single doses to regular supplementation over 15 days. The results of the meta analysis were very interesting, the paper demonstrated a very modest increase in time to exhaustion following beetroot supplementation, however the paper noted that beetroot supplementation was only really effective in inactive to moderately active individuals. Individuals with higher levels of fitness received no further benefit from beetroot supplementation.

In summary it doesn’t appear to be a bad idea to consume additional beetroot however, doses, frequency and consumption approach still need ironing out. It may be worth attempting gradual supplementation with daily beetroot juice. It theoretically can slightly reduce blood pressure and slightly enhance exercicse performance in untrained individuals, however like some articles may have you believe its not going to be the ground breaking trick to an instant summer body.