Beets do give you energy, but not in the way a cup of coffee or a sugary snack does. They don’t contain caffeine or much sugar. Instead, beets are rich in natural nitrates that make your body more efficient at producing energy at the cellular level, meaning your muscles need less oxygen to do the same amount of work. The effect is real, measurable, and backed by a substantial body of research.
How Beets Boost Energy Production
The key compound in beets is dietary nitrate. When you eat beets, the nitrate travels to your mouth, where bacteria on the back of your tongue convert it into a related compound called nitrite. That nitrite then reaches your stomach, where the acidic environment transforms it into nitric oxide, a molecule your body uses to widen blood vessels and regulate energy metabolism.
The energy benefit comes down to what happens inside your mitochondria, the tiny power plants in every cell. Nitric oxide makes mitochondria more efficient at converting food into usable energy (ATP). Specifically, it reduces something called “proton leak,” which is essentially wasted energy that escapes during the production process. Think of it like sealing cracks in a furnace so more heat reaches your home. Research published in Frontiers in Physiology found that mitochondria from people who supplemented with nitrate produced more energy per unit of oxygen consumed than mitochondria from non-supplemented people.
This efficiency gain means your body burns less oxygen to maintain the same level of output. During physical activity, that translates to feeling like the same effort costs you less.
The Effect on Physical Performance
The most well-documented energy benefit of beets is during exercise. Nitrate-rich beetroot juice can reduce the oxygen your body needs during physical activity by about 4% compared to an equivalent dose of sodium nitrate alone, likely because antioxidants in the beet itself help the process along.
For endurance, the results are significant. Moderate doses of beetroot nitrate (around 8.4 mmol) increased time to exhaustion by 14% in controlled studies. Interestingly, higher doses didn’t perform better: a very high dose only improved time to exhaustion by 12%, suggesting there’s a sweet spot rather than a “more is better” relationship. Low doses (4.2 mmol) didn’t produce a meaningful benefit at all.
Beets seem to help most during high-intensity or explosive efforts because of how they affect different types of muscle fibers. Your muscles contain slow-twitch fibers (used for endurance) and fast-twitch fibers (used for sprinting, lifting, and quick bursts of power). Fast-twitch fibers naturally operate in a lower-oxygen environment, which is exactly the condition where nitrite converts most readily into nitric oxide. Animal studies have shown that beetroot supplementation selectively increased blood flow to muscles composed primarily of fast-twitch fibers, raising their oxygen supply and reducing lactate buildup. In human studies, the performance benefits were most pronounced during tasks that recruited more fast-twitch fibers, like high-intensity intervals or heavy efforts.
Beetroot supplementation has also been shown to increase the speed of muscle force development, again specifically in fast-twitch muscle. This means beets may help you feel more powerful during short, intense efforts like sprints or climbing stairs quickly.
What About Mental Energy?
Because nitric oxide widens blood vessels, researchers have investigated whether beets improve blood flow to the brain and sharpen cognitive function. The theory makes sense: better blood flow to the prefrontal cortex could improve focus, reaction time, and mental clarity. In practice, the evidence is thin. A 13-week trial in older adults found that beetroot juice, regardless of dose, did not improve cognitive function or measurably change blood flow to the frontal cortex. The mental energy boost many people report after eating beets likely comes from improved cardiovascular efficiency and lower blood pressure rather than a direct brain effect.
Blood Pressure and Everyday Energy
One way beets contribute to feeling more energized day to day is through their effect on blood pressure. Consuming nitrate-rich foods like beets lowers systolic blood pressure by about 4 to 5 mmHg and diastolic pressure by about 2 mmHg. That may sound modest, but for someone with mildly elevated blood pressure, the cardiovascular system doesn’t have to work as hard to circulate blood. Over time, that reduced strain can translate into feeling less fatigued during normal daily activities.
How Much and When to Eat Them
The minimum effective dose for performance benefits appears to be around 5 mmol of nitrate, roughly what you’d find in one concentrated beetroot juice shot (about 70 ml) or around 200 ml of regular beetroot juice. Notably, when researchers tested commercial beet juice products marketed to athletes, only five consistently delivered at least 5 mmol of nitrate per serving, so product quality varies.
Timing matters. Plasma nitrate levels peak between 1 and 3 hours after consumption, so drinking beetroot juice about 2 hours before a workout puts you in the optimal window. For general energy throughout the day, consistent daily intake matters more than precise timing.
Raw vs. Cooked Beets
Cooking reduces the nitrate content of beets. Boiling is the biggest culprit because nitrates dissolve readily in water and leach out during the process, reducing levels by roughly 4 to 15% depending on cooking time and method. If you’re eating beets primarily for the energy and performance benefit, raw beet juice or raw grated beets in a salad preserve the most nitrate. Roasting retains more than boiling since there’s no water to leach into, but raw or juiced forms are still your best option for maximizing nitrate intake.
Side Effects Worth Knowing About
The most common and completely harmless side effect is beeturia, where your urine or stool turns pink or red after eating beets. This happens to about 10 to 14% of the general population. It’s more common in people whose bodies absorb iron at higher-than-normal rates: up to 80% of people with untreated iron-deficiency anemia experience it. If you notice beeturia resolving after starting iron supplements, that’s consistent with research showing it disappeared in iron-deficient patients within 8 days of iron therapy.
The more meaningful concern is oxalates. Beetroot juice contains 60 to 70 mg of oxalate per 100 ml, which is high compared to most beverages. If you have a history of calcium oxalate kidney stones, large daily amounts of beet juice could increase your risk. For everyone else, the oxalate content at normal consumption levels is not a concern.
One quirk of the nitrate pathway: because the conversion depends on bacteria in your mouth, using antibacterial mouthwash can actually reduce the effectiveness of beets for energy. The bacteria responsible for converting nitrate to nitrite get wiped out, short-circuiting the process before it starts.