Reviewed by the Help Dementia Editorial Team — our editors review every article for accuracy against guidance from the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association, and peer-reviewed sources.
Most important sits at the center of this dementia and brain health question.
Beets could be important for brain health in older adults, but probably not the single most important brain food—the research doesn’t support that level of claim. What the evidence does show is more nuanced and, frankly, more interesting: beets appear to improve blood circulation to the brain in people over 70, and this vascular benefit is significant enough that researchers at Wake Forest University confirmed it with MRI imaging. However, whether improved blood flow translates directly into better memory, cognition, or dementia prevention remains unclear. The science shows us part of the story, but not the whole picture.
The reason beets matter for brain health specifically comes down to nitrates—compounds naturally found in the vegetable that your body converts to nitric oxide, a molecule that relaxes blood vessels and increases oxygen delivery. As we age, our bodies produce less nitric oxide naturally, which is one reason circulation deteriorates in older brains. For adults over 70, beets essentially offer a way to compensate for this biological decline. But here’s where we need to be honest: better blood flow doesn’t automatically mean better cognition. A person could have excellent circulation and still experience cognitive decline from other causes.
Table of Contents
- How Does Nitric Oxide Actually Support Brain Function in Older Adults?
- What Does the Blood Flow Research Actually Show?
- When Combined With Exercise, Do Beets Show Stronger Brain Benefits?
- How Should Older Adults Actually Incorporate Beets Into Their Daily Diet?
- Understanding the Gaps: What Research Has NOT Proven About Beets and Cognition
- How Do Beets Compare to Other Nitrate-Rich Foods for Brain Health?
- New 2025 Research and What’s Next for Beet Science
- Conclusion
How Does Nitric Oxide Actually Support Brain Function in Older Adults?
Nitric oxide is one of your body’s most important signaling molecules. It tells your blood vessels to relax and dilate, which improves blood flow throughout the body—including to the brain. In younger adults, the brain benefits from robust nitric oxide production that keeps vessels flexible and responsive. But starting in middle age and accelerating after 70, the body’s natural ability to produce nitric oxide declines significantly. This isn’t just about feeling tired; reduced nitric oxide production is linked to cognitive problems in aging because the brain needs constant, reliable blood flow to function optimally. When you consume beets (or other high-nitrate foods), you’re essentially providing your body with raw material to manufacture more nitric oxide.
The nitrates in the beet travel to your digestive system, where bacteria convert them into nitrite, which your body then transforms into nitric oxide in the bloodstream. For someone over 70 whose natural production has declined by 30 to 50 percent, this external source can meaningfully restore vascular function. Think of it as providing your body with the nutrients it needs to maintain a system—your circulation—that’s gradually degrading with age. The limitation here is important to understand: we know nitric oxide improves blood vessel function across your entire body. We know beets increase nitric oxide availability. But we don’t yet have consistent evidence that this translates to preventing dementia or significantly improving cognition in most older adults. Better circulation is necessary for brain health, but it appears to be just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
What Does the Blood Flow Research Actually Show?
The most compelling evidence for beets and brain health comes from Wake Forest University researchers who conducted one of the few studies specifically designed to look at how high-nitrate diets affect older brains. They found that adults over age 70 who consumed a diet rich in nitrates experienced a 21 percent increase in blood flow to the frontal lobes—specifically to the white matter, which is the tissue responsible for communication between different brain regions. They confirmed this finding using MRI imaging, which means this isn’t speculation; they literally watched blood flow increase in the brains of older adults. The frontal lobes are particularly relevant because they’re associated with executive function, decision-making, and planning—the cognitive abilities that often decline early in aging. However, this same research team conducted a follow-up study combining beetroot juice with exercise, which revealed something important about how we should think about the blood flow improvement.
The study found that older adults who drank beetroot juice before exercising showed brain activity patterns on functional MRI that more closely resembled the neural networks of younger adults. This suggests that the blood flow improvement from beets isn’t just about raw circulation numbers; it appears to improve how efficiently the brain is working. The brain becomes more “young-like” in its activity patterns, at least in the short term. Here’s the critical limitation: increased blood flow to the brain in a research study doesn’t necessarily mean better memory or lower dementia risk in real life. A 2022 pilot study that specifically tested whether beetroot juice improved cognitive function in overweight and obese older adults (ages 60 to 75) found no significant changes in cognitive function or cerebral blood flow over a 13-week period. This finding raises an uncomfortable question: if you’re not exercising or if other health factors are at play, does the blood flow improvement from beets actually matter for cognition?.
When Combined With Exercise, Do Beets Show Stronger Brain Benefits?
The 2017 Journal of Gerontology study added a crucial variable that many beet studies overlook: exercise. Older adults who consumed beetroot juice before a period of physical activity showed better results than those who consumed it alone. The brain imaging showed that their neural networks—the patterns of communication between different brain regions—became more efficient and more similar to younger adults. This is significant because it suggests that beets might work as part of a broader lifestyle intervention rather than as a standalone food. This finding points to why beets might be particularly important for older adults: they don’t work in isolation. Think of an 72-year-old who walks regularly and drinks beetroot juice before her morning walk, compared to someone who eats beets but sits on the couch all day.
The first person gets both the direct benefits of exercise on the brain and the improved oxygen delivery from the nitrates. The second person gets the vascular improvement, but without the cognitive stimulation that exercise provides. Beetroot appears to enhance exercise’s effects rather than replacing the need for physical activity. The practical implication is that if you’re considering beets for brain health, pairing them with regular aerobic exercise is likely where the real benefit lies. A sedentary person eating beets daily probably won’t see the same brain benefits as an active person eating the same amount of beets. This also explains why the 2022 study that found no cognitive improvement might have lacked a structured exercise component—and why that limitation matters when interpreting the results.
How Should Older Adults Actually Incorporate Beets Into Their Daily Diet?
There are two main ways to consume beets: whole beets (roasted, boiled, or raw) and beetroot juice. For whole beets, a typical serving is one medium beet (about 3 inches in diameter), which contains roughly 100 to 150 milligrams of dietary nitrates. Beetroot juice is much more concentrated—a single 500-milliliter glass can contain 500 to 1,000 milligrams of nitrates, depending on the brand and processing method. This concentration difference matters if you’re trying to match the amounts used in research studies. Most of the significant blood flow improvements in research came from people consuming high-nitrate amounts—typically equivalent to drinking beetroot juice rather than eating a beet salad once a week. However, there’s a tradeoff between convenience and digestive tolerance.
Whole beets are easier on the digestive system, contain fiber for other health benefits, and fit more naturally into actual meals. You might roast beets with olive oil, add them to a salad with leafy greens, or blend them into soups. Beetroot juice is more efficient for getting a high dose of nitrates quickly, but it can cause digestive upset in some older adults—bloating, abdominal discomfort, or a temporary change in stool color (which is normal but can be alarming if you’re not expecting it). Many older adults actually prefer whole beets for this reason, even if they don’t achieve the exact nitrate levels tested in research. A practical approach for someone over 70 might be consuming beets 3 to 4 times per week rather than daily, combined with other nitrate-rich foods like spinach or arugula. This provides a steady source of nitrates without the digestive burden of concentrated juice. If you do use beetroot juice, start with a smaller amount (250 milliliters) to see how your body tolerates it, and always consume it with food rather than on an empty stomach.
Understanding the Gaps: What Research Has NOT Proven About Beets and Cognition
It’s crucial to be honest about what the research does and does not show. While blood flow improvements are well-documented, a 2024 systematic review published in MDPI Nutrients analyzed all available studies on beets, beetroot juice, and cognitive function in older adults and concluded that evidence for significant cognitive benefits is “limited and inconsistent.” The review highlighted that most studies have been small, conducted over short periods, and often haven’t measured actual cognitive outcomes—they’ve measured blood flow or other biomarkers instead. The reason this matters is because biomarkers aren’t the same as outcomes. You can improve blood flow in the brain without improving memory, processing speed, or executive function in any measurable way. It’s like improving the highway system in a city—that’s genuinely valuable infrastructure—but traffic still stays congested because other factors are limiting movement.
A 2022 pilot study tested this directly in older adults and found no significant improvements in cognitive function from 13 weeks of beetroot juice supplementation, despite the fact that beets reliably increase nitric oxide. This gap between vascular benefits and cognitive benefits is the honest summary of what we know: beets improve blood flow to the brain in older adults in ways we can measure with imaging technology. Whether this translates to better thinking, memory, or dementia prevention is still an open question. There’s a plausible mechanism for why it should matter, and it probably does matter for overall brain health, but the specific evidence that beets prevent or slow cognitive decline in older adults is not yet available. Larger, longer-term studies are needed.
How Do Beets Compare to Other Nitrate-Rich Foods for Brain Health?
Beets get attention in the research literature, but they’re not the only source of dietary nitrates. Leafy greens—particularly spinach, arugula, and kale—contain even higher nitrate concentrations than beets, and they come with additional nutrients like lutein and zeaxanthin, which have separate evidence for brain health benefits. A 2015 study in Neurology found that older adults who consumed the most leafy greens showed cognitive decline equivalent to being 11 years younger than those who ate the least.
This research predates the recent beetroot studies and looked at whole dietary patterns rather than isolated foods. For an older adult trying to maximize brain health through diet, the practical answer is probably to eat a variety of high-nitrate foods rather than focusing only on beets. A salad combining spinach, arugula, beets, and a beet vinaigrette provides multiple sources of nitrates, plus antioxidants, fiber, and minerals that support brain health through different mechanisms. Beets have the advantage of being well-studied recently and of showing reliable vascular improvements, but they’re most powerful as part of a broader dietary pattern rather than as a standalone “superfood.”.
New 2025 Research and What’s Next for Beet Science
The most recent research, published in 2025, adds a new dimension to the beet story. A study examining beetroot juice’s effects specifically in people with Alzheimer’s disease found that it improved vascular responsiveness—essentially, the ability of blood vessels in the brain to react appropriately to changes in oxygen demand. This is meaningful because Alzheimer’s involves vascular dysfunction alongside the better-known problems with amyloid proteins and tau tangles. If beets can help restore vascular function in people who already have cognitive disease, it suggests the mechanism might matter more than previous research indicated.
However, this 2025 study also highlights that beet research is still in relatively early stages. Most studies are small (often fewer than 50 participants), conducted over weeks or months rather than years, and often measure surrogate outcomes rather than actual cognitive decline or dementia prevention. The field is moving toward larger, longer-term trials that should definitively answer whether beets—or high-nitrate diets more broadly—can actually prevent or slow cognitive decline in older adults. Until those results arrive, beets represent a promising intervention with a strong biological mechanism and some early positive findings, but not a proven dementia prevention strategy.
Conclusion
Beets could be an important part of brain health for adults over 70, but they’re unlikely to be the single most important brain food. What the research actually shows is more specific: beets and other high-nitrate foods improve blood flow to the brain in older adults, particularly to regions associated with cognitive function, and they appear to enhance the brain benefits of exercise. This vascular improvement is real and measurable on MRI imaging.
However, whether this translates to better memory, slower cognitive decline, or reduced dementia risk remains an open question that requires larger, longer-term research to answer definitively. For older adults interested in potentially supporting brain health through diet, beets are worth incorporating into a broader pattern of healthy eating—particularly when combined with regular exercise, plenty of leafy greens, and other nutrient-rich foods. The investment is small, the mechanism makes biological sense, and the early evidence is encouraging, even if not yet conclusive. In the meantime, the evidence for cognitive benefits from regular physical activity, cognitive engagement, quality sleep, and strong social connections remains much stronger, and those should remain the foundation of any brain health strategy for people over 70.
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For more, see National Institute on Aging.
