Beets are one of those vegetables that can easily get overlooked.

They’re earthy, naturally sweet, inexpensive, and easy to add to salads, soups, roasted vegetables and other meals.

But beets contain something particularly interesting: naturally occurring nitrate.

Your body can convert dietary nitrate into nitric oxide, a molecule involved in blood-vessel function and blood flow. Research has found that nitrate-rich foods and beetroot products can have a modest blood-pressure-lowering effect, although the size of the benefit varies from person to person.

That doesn’t make beets a medication.

But it does give this colorful root vegetable a legitimate place in a heart-healthy diet.

1. Beets Provide More Than Just Color

That deep red-purple color isn’t accidental.

Beets contain natural pigments called betalains, along with fiber, folate, potassium and other nutrients.

A USDA SNAP-Ed nutrition profile lists one 82-gram beet at about 35 calories, with roughly 2 grams of fiber and 6 grams of naturally occurring sugar.

Raw beets also provide folate and minerals including potassium and manganese.

So you don’t need to drink beet juice or buy a concentrated supplement to get something useful from beets.

Simply eating the vegetable as part of a varied diet can provide nutritional value.

2. The Blood Pressure Connection Is One of the Most Interesting

This is probably the best-studied potential benefit of beetroot.

Beets are naturally rich in nitrate.

After you eat nitrate-containing foods, your body can convert nitrate into nitrite and ultimately nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps regulate blood-vessel tone.

That process is one reason researchers have investigated beetroot juice and blood pressure.

A 2024 umbrella review and updated meta-analysis covering 113 studies and more than 2,000 participants found that dietary nitrate supplementation was associated with reductions in resting blood pressure and improvements in several measures of vascular function.

Another 2024 meta-analysis looked specifically at adults with hypertension and found that beetroot juice significantly lowered clinical systolic blood pressure, although the researchers rated the certainty of the evidence as low and noted that results varied between studies.

That’s an important distinction.

Beets may support healthier blood-pressure numbers.

They should not be presented as a replacement for prescribed blood-pressure treatment.

3. Whole Beets and Beet Juice Aren’t Exactly the Same

You may see studies about beetroot juice and assume that eating a few slices of cooked beet will produce exactly the same result.

That’s not necessarily true.

Many research studies use concentrated beetroot juice containing a measured amount of nitrate.

A normal serving of beets provides nitrate too, but the amount can vary.

Whole beets have another advantage: they provide fiber and other nutrients that may be reduced or absent in a concentrated juice.

So for everyday eating, there’s no need to turn beets into a complicated health ritual.

Roasted beets, boiled beets, beet salads and other ordinary preparations can all fit into a healthy eating pattern.

4. Beets May Be Interesting for Exercise, Too

Nitrate has attracted considerable attention in sports nutrition because nitric oxide can influence blood flow and the amount of oxygen needed during exercise.

Research on beetroot juice has found potential improvements in certain endurance-related measures, particularly in some recreational and athletic populations.

But the evidence isn’t universal.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis in clinical populations found that individual studies sometimes reported benefits from nitrate supplementation, while the pooled results showed little overall effect on several measures of aerobic performance.

So it’s more accurate to say:

Beetroot may help exercise performance in certain situations, but it isn’t a guaranteed energy booster.

For someone simply trying to stay active, regular physical activity and a balanced diet matter far more than relying on beet juice before every walk.

5. What About Cholesterol?

This is an area where online articles often go too far.

You’ll sometimes see claims that beets “lower bad cholesterol” or that eating beetroot can clean your arteries.

The evidence isn’t strong enough to make those claims.

Beets are certainly a nutritious food, and replacing highly processed foods with vegetables can be part of a heart-healthy eating pattern.

But that doesn’t mean beets themselves have been proven to significantly lower LDL cholesterol in humans.

So if your cholesterol is high, don’t replace your prescribed treatment with beet juice.

Instead, think of beets as one nutritious food that can be included alongside the broader dietary and lifestyle changes recommended by your healthcare professional.

6. Do Beets “Detox” Your Body?

This is another popular claim worth correcting.

Your body already has highly effective systems for processing and eliminating waste, including the liver and kidneys.

There’s no good reason to think that eating beets performs a special whole-body “detox” that removes toxins.

That doesn’t make beets unhealthy.

Quite the opposite.

It simply means you don’t need to market a nutritious vegetable as a detox treatment to appreciate it.

A better way to describe beets is as a nutrient-rich vegetable that provides fiber, folate, potassium and naturally occurring plant compounds.

That’s already impressive enough.

7. What About Fermented Beets?

Fermented vegetables are a little different from ordinary cooked or raw vegetables.

During fermentation, microorganisms transform sugars and other components of the food.

Depending on how fermentation is performed, fermented vegetables can contain live microorganisms and organic acids.

This is one reason fermented foods have attracted interest in gut health.

But there’s an important detail:

Not every fermented food automatically provides a proven probiotic benefit.

The microorganisms present, their survival through storage and consumption, and the fermentation process all matter.

Recent food-safety research on spontaneously fermented vegetables also highlights how variable microbial populations and acidity can be, reinforcing the importance of proper fermentation practices.

So homemade fermented beets shouldn’t be treated casually.

Using a tested fermentation method, appropriate salt concentrations, clean equipment and proper storage is important.

8. A Simple Way to Eat More Beets

You don’t need an elaborate recipe.

Try roasted beets with:

• Olive oil
• Black pepper
• A small amount of salt
• Lemon juice
• Fresh herbs

You can also slice cooked beets into a salad with leafy greens, nuts and a simple vinaigrette.

If the earthy flavor is too strong for you, pairing beets with citrus, vinegar, apples, oranges or creamy ingredients can make them much more appealing.

And don’t forget the greens.

Beet greens are edible and can be cooked much like other leafy greens.

9. One Thing That Can Surprise You