Dietary nitrate (beetroot juice)
Dietary nitrates, Beet juice, BRJ, Beetroot shot
Forms: Beetroot juice and concentrated beetroot shots, nitrate-rich vegetables (beetroot, spinach, rocket, celery) and nitrate salts; in a large meta-analysis the salts did not clearly help, while juice did.
Inorganic nitrate from vegetables such as beetroot, which mouth bacteria and the body turn into nitric oxide. One of the few supplements the IOC rates as having good evidence of a performance benefit.
Legal status: Sold freely as food and supplements and not prohibited by WADA; tested athletes should still prefer third-party-certified products.
What it gives
What people use it for and what the sources report. Strength is a general category from the literature: mild, clear or strong.
Purpose
Used by endurance and team-sport athletes to make muscle work more efficient, extend time to exhaustion and help in high-intensity, intermittent efforts. It also lowers blood pressure slightly.
What people seek and what studies show
Meta-analyses of 80 and 123 trials find a small but consistent benefit, clearest in efforts of 2–10 minutes; well-trained endurance athletes gained little or nothing. Over weeks it did not add to training adaptations. Antibacterial mouthwash blunts the effect. Systolic blood pressure fell by about 4 mmHg in short trials.
Effects
Evidence: Limited human data — some human studies, small or short
Sought effects by goal (as reported)
Possible side effects
Possible does not mean certain: whether they appear depends on dose, duration, individual response and monitoring. Below — what to watch for and how to notice it early.
2 possible side effects
level · how often it is reportedWhat the levels mean
Level: general category from the literature, not your personal risk
How often
- common
- reported often
- possible
- reported in some people
- rare
- reported occasionally
How to lower the risks
For 1 of 2 possible side effects there are specific ways to lower the chance: everyday measures, supplements and options a doctor may consider. For the rest — general advice. No measure removes a risk completely.
Low-level side effects
How each option helps (2)
- Working with a doctor — Assesses persistent vomiting or severe belly pain (possible pancreatitis or gallstones) and adjusts prescribed GLP-1 treatment when nausea persists.
- Pancreatin + dimeticone (Pankreoflat) — May ease heaviness and gas after meals; can cause nausea or diarrhea. Not for pork or cow's milk protein allergy (anaphylaxis reported) or early acute pancreatitis.
Check-ups and blood tests
Which tests and check-ups to do and when. This is a guide — agree the exact schedule with your doctor.
For women
Fewer studies include women: one meta-analysis saw no clear benefit in women-only studies, another a small gain in power but not in strength or sprints.
Myth & fact
“Are nitrate salts the same as beetroot juice?”
No. In a 123-trial meta-analysis the salts did not clearly help while juice did. Concentrated sodium nitrite and nitrate salts are poisons in large amounts: they cause methemoglobinemia, and deaths are reported.
Combinations
No specific combination notes for this substance yet. The stack check still adds up side effects that several substances share.
Sources
Possible side effects by body system, combinations, how to lower the risks and which tests to do — free.
Open the stack check