Fresh beet juice is one of the most effective natural drinks for lowering blood pressure, thanks to its high concentration of dietary nitrates. In clinical trials, people with high blood pressure who drank about 250 ml (roughly one cup) daily saw their systolic blood pressure drop by an average of 5 to 8 mmHg. Making it at home is straightforward, but how you prepare, store, and time your juice matters more than most people realize.
Why Beet Juice Lowers Blood Pressure
Beets are packed with naturally occurring nitrates. When you drink beet juice, bacteria on your tongue convert those nitrates into nitrite, which your body then converts into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide relaxes and widens your blood vessels, reducing the resistance your heart has to pump against. That’s what brings your blood pressure down.
This effect is measurable. A meta-analysis in Frontiers in Nutrition found that beet juice lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number) by about 5 mmHg on average in people with hypertension, with some studies showing reductions as large as 7 to 8 mmHg when blood pressure was measured in a clinic setting. The effect on diastolic pressure (the bottom number) was smaller and less consistent. Study participants drank between 70 and 250 ml daily for periods ranging from 3 to 60 days.
How to Make It at Home
You need raw beets. Cooking, especially boiling, leaches nitrates out of the vegetable and reduces the blood pressure benefit. Steaming or roasting preserves more nitrates than boiling, but raw juice delivers the most.
Here’s the basic process:
- Wash and peel 2 to 3 medium raw beets. Trim the tops and bottoms.
- Cut into chunks small enough for your juicer or blender.
- Juice them. If using a centrifugal or masticating juicer, feed the chunks through directly. If using a blender, add about half a cup of water, blend until smooth, then strain through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth.
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice. This isn’t just for taste. Research from the University of Plymouth found that adding 5% lemon juice completely prevented nitrate degradation in homemade beet juice stored for up to 3 days. It also preserved 62% of the nitrate content at room temperature for a full week.
Two to three medium beets typically yield about 250 ml (one cup) of juice, which is the amount used in most clinical trials.
Ingredients That Improve Taste and Benefits
Straight beet juice has an earthy, slightly sweet flavor that many people find intense. A few additions make it more drinkable without undermining the blood pressure benefit:
- Apple: One small apple adds sweetness and cuts the earthiness. Green apples work best if you want to keep the sugar content lower.
- Ginger: About an inch of fresh ginger root adds a sharp kick that masks the beet flavor well.
- Lemon: The juice of one lemon brightens the flavor and, as noted above, helps preserve the nitrate content.
- Carrot: One or two carrots add natural sweetness and blend well with the beet flavor.
Avoid adding large amounts of dairy or yogurt to the juice. Some research suggests that proteins can interfere with the nitrate-to-nitric-oxide conversion pathway in your mouth.
When to Drink It
Timing matters. Blood pressure naturally peaks in the morning due to your body’s circadian rhythm, and drinking beet juice on an empty stomach improves absorption. The best approach, based on current evidence, is to drink it about 30 minutes before breakfast.
A 2024 study found that morning doses were slightly more effective at lowering systolic blood pressure than evening doses (3 versus 2 mmHg reduction), though an early afternoon dose performed marginally better than morning in that particular trial (4 versus 3 mmHg). The overall evidence favors early in the day rather than late afternoon or evening.
The blood pressure lowering effect typically peaks about 3 to 6 hours after drinking the juice, so a morning dose covers the period when your cardiovascular system is under the most strain.
Storage Makes or Breaks the Benefit
This is where most people unknowingly waste their effort. Homemade beet juice loses its nitrates fast at room temperature. Research found that nitrate was completely gone from fresh beet juice left at room temperature for just 3 days. At the same time, nitrite levels spiked dramatically, which changes the chemical profile of the juice entirely.
To preserve the nitrate content:
- Refrigerate immediately. Storing at 4°C (standard fridge temperature) preserved about 78% of the nitrate content over 3 days.
- Freeze for longer storage. Freezing preserved about 82% of nitrates over the same period.
- Add lemon juice before storing. This simple step fully prevented nitrate loss for 3 days even at room temperature.
- Drink it fresh when possible. The highest nitrate content is always on day one.
If you want to batch-prep for the week, freeze individual portions in ice cube trays or small containers and thaw one serving the night before in the fridge. Combining freezing with lemon juice gives you the best preservation.
How Much to Drink Daily
The dose used in most successful clinical trials is 250 ml (about 8.5 ounces, or one cup) per day. Some studies used as little as 70 ml of concentrated commercial beet juice and still found benefits. The British Heart Foundation highlighted research showing that high blood pressure patients drinking one cup of beet juice daily had their readings return to the normal range by the end of the study period.
Consistency matters more than quantity. A single glass produces a temporary drop in blood pressure lasting several hours. Daily consumption over weeks is what produces the sustained reductions seen in clinical trials. Most studies ran for at least one to two weeks before measuring outcomes.
Side Effects and Cautions
The most noticeable side effect is beeturia, a harmless condition where your urine or stool turns pink or red. About 14% of people experience this because they don’t fully break down betanin, the pigment that gives beets their color. It’s not blood and it’s not dangerous, but it can be alarming if you’re not expecting it.
Beets are high in oxalates, which can contribute to kidney stone formation in people who are prone to calcium oxalate stones. If you have a history of kidney stones, this is worth discussing with your doctor before making beet juice a daily habit.
If you take blood pressure medication, regular beet juice consumption can add to the blood pressure lowering effect. That’s not necessarily a problem, but blood pressure dropping too low can cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and fainting. Monitoring your readings at home when you first start drinking beet juice regularly will help you and your doctor gauge whether any medication adjustments are needed.
Raw Juice vs. Commercial Concentrates
Concentrated commercial beet juice products (often sold as “shots”) contain standardized nitrate levels, which makes dosing more predictable. Homemade juice has variable nitrate content depending on the beets themselves: factors like soil conditions, how much sunlight the plants received, how long the beets were stored before purchase, and even the specific variety all affect nitrate levels.
That said, research suggests that the blood pressure lowering effects are broadly comparable between concentrated beet juice and whole vegetable sources when similar nitrate doses are consumed. One study found that both concentrated beet juice and a mix of nitrate-rich vegetables (spinach, lettuce, arugula, bok choy) reduced blood pressure by about 5 mmHg over one week, even though the concentrated juice produced higher plasma nitrate levels.
If you prefer homemade juice but want more reliable results, combining beets with other high-nitrate vegetables like spinach or arugula in your juice can help ensure you’re getting a meaningful dose even if your particular batch of beets happens to be lower in nitrates.