Beets bring two distinct beneficial compounds to the table, nitrates and betalains, the natural pigments giving beets their deep red color, and research is increasingly finding that how well you respond to them may depend on which broad type of gut bacteria community you already have.
A real, carefully designed study
A study had participants avoid all beet-pigment foods for two weeks beforehand, then drink red beetroot juice daily for 14 days while giving stool samples along the way. This careful design gives real confidence that the gut bacteria changes seen were genuinely down to the beetroot juice itself.
The gut-type finding
A separate lab study specifically looked at whether people's baseline gut bacteria type changes how they respond to beet compounds, and found that beet powder and its main pigment produced genuinely different effects on gut bacteria and beneficial fatty acid production depending on that starting type.
An honest result from a real clinical trial
A trial tested beetroot juice in adults with long COVID over 14 days and found it positively affected their gut bacteria and lowered inflammation, but didn't improve the trial's main outcome, a result worth including precisely because it's not a simple success story.
Where the pigments actually go
These pigments are poorly absorbed higher up in your digestive tract, so a large share reaches your large intestine intact, where research has found beet-eaters showing higher levels of a beneficial fatty acid tied to how these pigments break down.
Beets are a reasonable, well-supported addition to a varied diet, whether as roasted or raw beetroot, beet juice, or fermented pickled beets, which add live bacteria on top of the vegetable's own compounds. To keep more of the heat-sensitive nitrates and pigments, avoid boiling for a long time, roasting or lightly steaming keeps more of both. Given the gut-type research, don't be surprised if beets seem to affect you differently than they affect someone else, that variation is now a documented, real thing.
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This content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.