Beetroot Supplement vs. Juice: Compare Benefits and Nutrients
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Beetroot Supplement vs. Beetroot Juice

Beetroot Supplement vs. Beetroot Juice
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Updated on July 31, 2025
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Beets are packed with nutrients and offer impressive health benefits, particularly in the areas of cardiovascular health and athletic performance. But these bitter and earthy root vegetables can take some time and thoughtfulness to prepare.

You might find that consuming a beetroot juice or supplement (which is typically in the form of a powder) is an easier way to integrate this healthy food into your diet.

However, choosing between juice and powder — as well as between the brands selling them — is no simple task. Both forms have their nutritional strengths, but manufacturing quality varies between brands, and many brands add unique spins to their formulas.

Here are the essential differences between beet powder and beet juice, and a few things to look out for while choosing a product.

Beetroots Are a Superfood

Beetroot is known for being rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin B, manganese, and potassium.

 On top of that, beetroot contains a variety of beneficial bioactive compounds, including phenolic compounds, carotenoids, flavonoids, and betalains.

 These bioactive compounds have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Importantly, beetroot also contains nitrates, which are natural vasodilators, meaning they help to open blood vessels. Because of this, they are often studied for their potential to lower blood pressure, improve athletic performance, and increase cognitive functioning.

What Happens to Beets When They’re Juiced?

The process of juicing involves separating the liquid from the fiber of the beet. While this results in an increased concentration of certain nutrients, it causes a loss of fiber-bound nutrients and, importantly, fiber itself.

 Juicing also increases the concentration of sugar per serving.

What About When Beets Are Ground Into Powder?

Beetroot supplements are produced in three main ways: You can take beetroot juice and dehydrate it to create a powder, or you can dehydrate whole beets through freeze-drying or spray-drying. Once dried, the beets are crushed into powdered form.

So, Beet Powder Is Sometimes Just Dehydrated Juice?

Yes. But for the sake of clarity, we won’t focus on this type of beet powder. If you’re looking for benefits that are specific to whole dehydrated beets, avoid brands labeled “beetroot juice powder” or that have “beet juice” listed as an ingredient.

Beetroot Juice vs. Powder

As stated above, we’re going to focus on the differences between beetroot that’s juiced and beetroot that’s freeze-dried in its full form and then ground into powder.

Beet juice has been studied far more intensely than powder, so it’s nearly impossible to make a proper comparison. That said, there are clear reasons why juice has been the main focus of this research, and these reasons make a strong case for beet juice as the winner between the two.

Of course, your “winner” depends on your unique health goals. While juice may be a better choice for heart health and athletic performance, there is clear evidence that the powder is lower in calories and sugar, and higher in fiber.

Here’s a summary of the latest in beet research, so you can make the most informed choice:

Beetroot Juice Has Higher Nitrate Levels

Nitrates are a huge focus in beet research. As discussed above, nitrates have been studied for their ability to expand blood vessels and improve blood flow, potentially contributing to lower blood pressure and improved athletic performance, among other benefits.

While research indicates a broad range of nitrate content in beetroot juice, from a few hundred milligrams of nitrate per serving to numbers in the thousands, the average amount of nitrate in beet juice is around 1,446 milligrams per serving.

Research also indicates a range of nitrate contents for different beetroot powders, but that range is much smaller. The powder with the highest nitrate content in a review published in 2023 had 169 milligrams per serving, for example.

Juice May Be a Better ‘Vehicle’ for Transmission of Nitrates

Beetroot contains a variety of polyphenols, a plant-based compound recognized for its antioxidant properties.

While research is conflicting on whether juice or powder has higher phenolic and antioxidant capabilities, many studies have explored how polyphenols present in beetroot juice could potentially enhance nitrate absorption by increasing its “bioavailability,” or the ability of nitrate to be absorbed and utilized.

Powders may have lower levels of polyphenols if they are spray-dried, as polyphenols are highly susceptible to degradation when exposed to heat.

Beet Supplements Have More Fiber and Less Sugar

Juicing removes almost all of the fiber from the beet, whereas beetroot powder retains some of its fiber when it’s produced from dehydrated, ground beets.

Juicing extracts the liquid from the beet, and the sugar remains concentrated in this liquid, leading to higher sugar content per serving, compared with the ground version of a whole beet.

Once More: The Brand Matters for Both

The quality, nutritional composition, and levels of bioactive compounds of both beet juice and powder depend greatly on the way the product is prepared and stored.

For example, the process of freeze-drying powders is designed to retain betalains.

Additionally, while freshly prepared beetroot juice is high in nutritional value, it has a very short shelf life, because its nutrients rapidly degrade once exposed to air.

And finally, as discussed above, the amount of nitrates in both powder and juice varies greatly between brands, meaning some products may not contain enough nitrates to have an effect — there is, unfortunately, limited quality control for beet products in the current market, especially for powders.

The Takeaway

  • Beetroot juice generally contains higher levels of nitrates, which are beneficial for heart health and athletic performance. The polyphenols in juice may also enhance the body’s ability to absorb these nitrates.
  • Beetroot powder retains more dietary fiber and is lower in sugar per serving than juice. The method used to create the powder (freeze-drying vs. heat-drying) heavily influences its nutritional quality.
  • Regardless of whether you choose juice or powder, the brand and manufacturing process are crucial. Factors like how the beets are processed, dried, and stored can cause significant variation in the final product’s nitrate, polyphenol, and overall nutritional content.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
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Resources
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Kayli Anderson, RDN

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Kayli Anderson has over a decade of experience in nutrition, culinary education, and lifestyle medicine. She believes that eating well should be simple, pleasurable, and sustainable. Anderson has worked with clients from all walks of life, but she currently specializes in nutrition therapy and lifestyle medicine for women. She’s the founder of PlantBasedMavens.com, a hub for women to get evidence-based, practical, and woman-centered guidance on nutrition and cooking, hormone health, fertility, pregnancy, movement, mental well-being, nontoxic living, and more.

Anderson is board-certified in lifestyle medicine and serves as lead faculty of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s (ACLM) "Food as Medicine" course. She is past chair of the ACLM's registered dietitian member interest group, secretary of the women's health member interest group, and nutrition faculty for many of ACLM's other course offerings. She is the coauthor of the Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and works with many of the leading organizations in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to develop nutrition content, recipes, and educational programs.

Anderson frequently speaks on the topics of women’s health and plant-based nutrition and has coauthored two lifestyle medicine textbooks, including the first one on women’s health, Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan.

She received a master's degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She's a student of herbal medicine and women's integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden.

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