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Beet juice lowers blood pressure
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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A glass of beetroot juice will help lower blood pressure, Australian scientists claim.
During the study, experts found that if you drink beetroot juice for several hours, systolic blood pressure decreases by an average of 4-5 points.
Experts note that despite the small reduction in pressure, at the public health level even such a small reduction can be equivalent to a 10% reduction in the risk of death from heart disease.
"This is promising because we see the effect of just one dose of beetroot juice," said lead author Leah Coles, a researcher at the University of Melbourne. "This effect may increase with continued consumption. In the long term, this could have a positive impact on health."
Previous studies have shown that beetroot juice can lower blood pressure, but all of the studies were conducted in a lab setting. Experts say this is the first study to add beetroot juice to a person's daily diet without making any changes to their usual lifestyle or diet.
The study involved 15 men and 15 women. Half of them drank almost 400 grams of a drink consisting of three-quarters beetroot juice and one-quarter apple juice. The rest drank a placebo – a drink made from blackcurrants.
The specialists monitored the volunteers' condition for 24 hours. The same procedure was repeated two weeks later, only now those who drank a placebo in the first part of the study drank beetroot juice.
The results showed that both men and women tended to see a reduction in systolic blood pressure within six hours of drinking beetroot juice. However, the results were more dramatic for male participants, with those drinking beetroot juice seeing a 4.7-point reduction in blood pressure. The effect was less pronounced for women.
Dr Coles says the differences could be explained by the women's age and whether they were taking oral contraceptives.
The effect that beetroot juice produces is due to the high content of nitrates in beets. During digestion, they are converted into nitric oxide, thus increasing blood flow and maintaining low blood pressure. Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels and dilates them, allowing blood to flow more easily and lowering blood pressure.
The researchers also studied the effect of the pigment responsible for the rich red color of beets – betalain. As a result, it turned out that red and white beets give the same effect.
"Our research supports the idea that nitrate-rich foods may lower blood pressure, but more research is needed to understand the long-term effects of nitrate consumption and its impact on blood pressure," the researchers say.
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