Beetroot and endurance
What 3 graded rows on beetroot agree on for endurance, and where they differ. Counted side by side, never averaged.
Consensus finder Rows from the Beetroot page, reviewed Oct 21, 2026 How it decides
What the rows agree on
Each block and row is one graded row from the Beetroot page, with its PubMed record.
Your question
Beetroot and endurance
3 rows · 3,603 peopleMostly an improvement: 2 of 3 rows, and most of the people. 1 found no difference.
- BGrade B× 2
- CGrade C× 1
- Rows
- 3
- Trials
- 229
- People
- 3,603
- Pooled reviews may count some twice
Where they differ
From the rowsThe best-graded row, grade B, is a meta-analysis of 2,672 people (2025) and found an improvement.
The 2 rows that found an improvement were larger: a median of 1,688 people, against 228 people for the row that found no difference.
The 2 rows that found an improvement are newer (2025 to 2026) than the row that found no difference (2023).
The best grade is B among the rows that found an improvement, and C among the row that found no difference.
The rows
2 improved · 1 no difference- BGrade BExercise performance (time to exhaustion, endurance, power) · Improved
Meta-analysis, 180 studies · n 2,672 · 2025 · Participants in 180 studies pooled across 20 meta-analyses
Larger gains with at least 6 mmol (372 mg) a day for more than 3 days · Single doses to multi-day loading
Small improvements in time to exhaustion (SMD 0.33), distance covered, muscular endurance and peak power; no significant effect on other performance outcomes. Most included reviews were rated low or critically low quality.
- BGrade BVO2max / VO2peak · Improved
Meta-analysis, 38 studies · n 703 · 2026 · Healthy adults in 38 placebo-controlled randomized and crossover trials
Most consistent effects at 6.4–12.8 mmol nitrate (about 400–790 mg) · Most consistent with at least 3 consecutive days
VO2max/VO2peak rose slightly versus placebo (SMD 0.24, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.37); larger in recreationally active people (SMD 0.38) and not clearly shown in highly trained athletes (SMD 0.07). Adjusting for possible small-study bias attenuated the effect to SMD 0.19. Certainty moderate.
- CGrade CGains from exercise training (VO2peak, time to exhaustion) · No difference
Meta-analysis, 11 studies · n 228 · 2023 · 11 placebo-controlled trials (9 studies) of nitrate during at least 3 weeks of identical training
Varied across trials · At least 3 weeks of training
Nitrate did not add to training gains in VO2peak (SMD 0.18, 95% CI −0.09 to 0.44) or time to exhaustion (SMD 0.08); in healthy people taking beetroot juice there was a non-significant trend for VO2peak (p = 0.08). Trials had low statistical power.