You Already Believe in Nitrate. So Why Is Your Beet Powder Half-Used?

The beet-free, dose-transparent switch for people who came for nitrate but quit over the earthy taste, the red urine and a label that never told them the dose.

You’re not here to be sold on nitrate. You already bought a beet product because of it. What wore you down was everything that came along with it: the earthy taste, the red urine and a label that said “beetroot powder” without a word about how much nitrate you were actually getting. If there’s a tub sitting three-quarters full in your cupboard right now, you’re in the right place.

NITRATE-IQ™ is a beet-free, dose-transparent nitric-oxide drink mix. It supplies the same active compound as beet products, dietary nitrate, without the earthy taste, beeturia or an undisclosed dose.*

The nitrate comes from a spinach extract standardized to 9% dietary nitrate, so the label can state how much nitrate each serving provides: 135 mg in 1 scoop, 270 mg in 2 scoops and 540 mg in 4. It’s lemon-flavored, caffeine-free and contains no beet sugar, because there’s no beet in it.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Keep the Nitrate Pathway You Came For, Without the Beets, the Red Urine or the Guesswork

Your body doesn’t care whether nitrate comes from a root or a leaf. It runs both through the same pathway, converting nitrate to nitrite and then to nitric oxide (Lundberg et al., 2008). That’s the whole idea behind NITRATE-IQ™: keep the pathway, change the source.

Each scoop pairs that measured nitrate source with Enovita™ grape seed extract and a small amount of fulvic acid. Taken as labeled, 1 scoop daily, NITRATE-IQ™ supports healthy nitric oxide levels.*

Dietary nitrate, the active ingredient class in NITRATE-IQ™, has been studied in meta-analyses of randomized trials (Siervo et al., 2013; Norouzzadeh et al., 2025). We walk through what those studies found, and what they didn’t, further down.

It Wasn’t the Science That Made You Stop. It Was the Beet

Think back to how the last one actually went. The nitrate was real, so you gave it an honest shot. Then you tasted it. Earthy, almost like dirt, and no amount of stirring fixed that. The first time your urine came out red, it gave you real pause, even after you figured out it was “just the beets.” Meanwhile the beet sugar was quietly working against the clean-eating goals that sent you looking for a supplement in the first place. And when you flipped the label to see how much nitrate you were getting? It said “beetroot powder.” Nothing else.

So the tub drifted to the back of the shelf. You felt a little defeated, like the science held up and the product still beat you. That’s the frustration: dosing blind on a product you couldn’t taste past.

Here’s the reframe. None of that was a discipline problem, and none of it was the nitrate’s fault. It was the raw material. A beet product can’t make itself beet-free; the taste, the pigment and the sugar come with the source. Change the source, though, and you keep the nitrate while losing the exact things that made you quit.

Why Many Beet Products Leave You With the Same Two Blind Spots

Many beet powders, juices, chews and capsules share the same two limitations, and switching between them often doesn’t solve either one.

The first blind spot is the dose. Beet products deliver genuine dietary nitrate, and they built this whole category. But many of them list “beetroot powder” with no nitrate milligrams, which makes it hard to line a dose up against published research or build a routine you can repeat. That’s why NITRATE-IQ™ prints its labeled nitrate amount per serving (135 / 270 / 540 mg), which makes it a fit for people who read labels and want beet-free support they can measure.*

The second blind spot is the beet itself. Maybe you switched to capsules to get away from the taste. That helps with flavor, but capsules still contain the beet pigments that cause pink or red urine in some people (Watts et al., 1993). And if the label doesn’t list nitrate, you may take several capsules without knowing your dose.

So the pattern is common across beet products: a dose you often can’t see, and a source that brings taste, pigment and sugar along with the nitrate. Changing the format doesn’t fix that. Changing the source does.

Same Pathway, Cleaner Source: How Spinach Nitrate Delivers the Nitric Oxide You Came For

You already know the gist: nitrate becomes nitric oxide, and nitric oxide helps blood vessels relax. Here’s the detail your old label skipped, and what NITRATE-IQ™ adds.

Start with the relay. Up to about a quarter of circulating nitrate is taken up by your salivary glands, where friendly mouth bacteria reduce it to nitrite. Nitrite is then converted to nitric oxide, a step that’s enhanced in acidic, low-oxygen conditions such as working muscle. Nitric oxide signals through the sGC/cGMP system to relax the smooth muscle in blood-vessel walls (Lundberg et al., 2008). That relay runs the same way whether the nitrate came from a beet or from spinach.

Nitric oxide is short-lived; it can react with superoxide within milliseconds (Beckman & Koppenol, 1996).

The formula also includes Enovita™ grape seed extract. In laboratory (cell-culture) research, the extract activated eNOS, the enzyme blood-vessel cells use to make nitric oxide (Schön et al., 2021). We’re not aware of published human studies showing that this protects nitric oxide in the body.

The spinach extract also provides 195 / 390 / 780 mg of naturally occurring potassium (4 / 8 / 17% DV), a mineral the body needs for normal heart and muscle function (National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, 2022). It’s a small contribution, not the main active.

Does it matter that the nitrate comes from spinach rather than beets? In a randomized crossover study, a single meal of nitrate-rich whole spinach raised plasma nitrite and flow-mediated dilation in healthy adults (Bondonno et al., 2012). More on that study below.

 

 

What Switching the Source, Not the Science, Actually Changes

You’re keeping the nitrate you already trusted. Here’s what changes day to day once the beet is out of the picture.

A Tub You Actually Finish

Because the nitrate comes from spinach, there’s no beet pigment, no beet sugar and no earthy taste. It’s a lemon drink mix.

That half-used tub, and the quiet feeling of having given up, can give way to a drink you don’t have to force down. Sticking with it doesn’t have to be a willpower test.

You become the person who finally found a nitric-oxide drink they keep on the counter and re-order, not another abandoned experiment.

A Dose You Can See

Because the spinach extract is standardized to 9% dietary nitrate, the label can state how much nitrate each serving provides. That turns each scoop into a known amount instead of the mystery your old label handed you.

Dosing blind was frustrating. A routine built around a number you can read is a different experience.

You become someone who reads the label and follows a routine on purpose, not by guesswork.

One Tub, Three Serving Sizes

One tub lists three serving sizes on its Supplement Facts panel: 1 scoop (135 mg nitrate), 2 scoops (270 mg) and 4 scoops (540 mg). The labeled direction is 1 scoop daily. Talk with your healthcare provider before using more than 1 scoop.

No caffeine and no jitters.

The Evidence Behind the Nitrate You Already Trusted, Now With a Dose You Can See

You didn’t need convincing that nitrate matters. What you deserve is an honest look at the research, including the limits. None of the studies below tested NITRATE-IQ™ itself. They’re ingredient and mechanism research, and where an ingredient supplier conducted or sponsored a study, we say so.

Dietary nitrate and blood pressure: meta-analysis. Sixteen short-term trials (254 participants, 2 hours to 15 days) found dietary nitrate was associated with 4.4 mmHg lower systolic pressure (95% CI −5.9 to −2.8). Higher doses were associated with larger changes. Diastolic change was not significant. Siervo et al. (2013), The Journal of Nutrition.

Dose matters: dose-response meta-analysis. Across 75 randomized trials with 1,823 participants, systolic changes grew with the nitrate dose. The authors estimated that about 8 mmol of nitrate a day (roughly 496 mg) is needed for a 2 mmHg reduction, the threshold they used for a meaningful change. For context, 1 scoop of NITRATE-IQ™ provides about 2.2 mmol and 2 scoops about 4.4 mmol. Norouzzadeh et al. (2025), Nutrition Journal.

Longer studies: meta-analysis. Thirteen trials lasting at least a week (325 participants) found lower clinic blood-pressure readings with dietary nitrate, but the change wasn’t confirmed by 24-hour ambulatory or home monitoring. Ashor et al. (2017), Journal of Hypertension.

Spinach nitrate and blood-vessel function: randomized crossover. In 30 healthy adults, a single meal with nitrate-rich whole spinach raised plasma nitrite and flow-mediated dilation and lowered systolic pressure over the following hours compared with a control meal. Adding apple flavonoids didn’t add to the effect. It shows nitrate from spinach, not only beetroot, can support nitric-oxide status. NITRATE-IQ™ uses a spinach extract rather than whole spinach. Bondonno et al. (2012), Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

Enovita™ grape seed extract: randomized, placebo-controlled trial. 80 adults aged 40 to 70 with systolic readings of 125 to 140 mmHg took 300 mg a day or placebo for 16 weeks. The main result (change in systolic pressure) didn’t differ between groups. In a subgroup analysis of men, systolic pressure was 3.8 mmHg lower than placebo at 16 weeks. One stress subscale (“worries”) also improved compared with placebo. Separate cell-culture tests showed eNOS activation. Three authors are employees of Indena, the ingredient supplier. The 2-scoop serving provides 150 mg, half the studied dose; 4 scoops provides 300 mg. Schön et al. (2021), Nutrients.

Red spinach (amaranth) research. Red spinach is Amaranthus, a different nitrate-rich plant from the Spinacia oleracea in NITRATE-IQ™. In 16 healthy adults, a single 2 g dose of amaranth extract raised plasma and salivary nitrate and nitrite for at least 8 hours (Subramanian & Gupta, 2016). In a separate randomized crossover study, a single 1,000 mg dose of red spinach extract (about 90 mg nitrate) raised plasma nitrate sharply and increased oxygen uptake at ventilatory threshold by about 6% compared with placebo. Plasma nitrite, time to exhaustion and peak oxygen uptake didn’t change. The study was funded by DolCas Biotech, which makes that red spinach extract and also supplies the spinach extract used in NITRATE-IQ™; DolCas had a role in the study design (Moore et al., 2017).

Quality. NITRATE-IQ™ is GMP manufactured, as shown on the label, in line with FDA’s dietary supplement cGMP rules (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, n.d.). The label also lists it as vegan, gluten free, soy free and GMO free.

Why NITRATE-IQ™ Prints Its Nitrate Dose When Many Beet Products Don’t

The comparison below is a feature and specification comparison, not a claim of superior effectiveness.

 

 

 

Spinach and beetroot deliver the same active compound, dietary nitrate. What differs is the delivery: no beet pigment, no beet sugar and a nitrate amount printed on the label. At 9% nitrate, the extract provides about 90 mg of nitrate per gram, which is why it can be a practical daily nitrate source.*

The Questions Every Beet-Product Switcher Asks, Answered

I already take a beet supplement. Why would I switch?

You’d keep the part that matters and drop the parts that made you quit. NITRATE-IQ™ supplies dietary nitrate through the same nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway, sourced from a spinach extract instead of beets, so there’s no beet pigment, no beet sugar and no earthy taste. Because the extract is standardized to 9% dietary nitrate, the label lists how much nitrate each serving provides (135 / 270 / 540 mg), so you can build a routine around a known amount instead of dosing blind.*

Will it turn my urine red like beets do?

Beeturia, pink or red urine after eating beets, comes from betalain pigments in beetroot. It’s estimated to occur in about 10–14% of people and is reported more often in people with low iron (Watts et al., 1993). It’s generally harmless, but it can be startling. NITRATE-IQ™ sources its nitrate from spinach, which carries no beet pigment, so beeturia from beets isn’t a factor. That matters because a supplement you dislike is one you stop taking.

Does spinach nitrate work the same way as beet nitrate?

It uses the same pathway. Both beets and spinach supply dietary nitrate, which the body converts to nitrite and then nitric oxide. How much you get depends on the dose, which is why NITRATE-IQ™ lists it on the label.*

Can I take it if I take prescription medications?

Talk with your healthcare provider first. The potassium in the spinach extract can interact with potassium-sparing diuretics, ACE inhibitors and ARBs (National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, 2022). Dietary nitrate lowered blood pressure and showed antiplatelet effects in a human study (Webb et al., 2008), so check with your provider if you take blood-pressure medications or blood thinners. As a precaution, do the same if you take PDE-5 inhibitors or organic nitrates, which also act on the nitric oxide pathway. Keep any prescribed regimen exactly as directed. NITRATE-IQ™ is not a substitute for medication. If you’re under a physician’s care for blood pressure or heart health, talk with your provider before adding any supplement.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Make the Switch to a Nitric-Oxide Drink You’ll Actually Finish

You came into this category for nitrate, and you can keep it. What you can leave behind is the beet taste, the red urine and the blind dose.

Learn More About NITRATE-IQ™ →

For the Label-Readers: Ingredient, Mechanism and Safety Details

What’s on the Label

 

 

Spinach Extract

Spinach is a common food and, along with other green leafy vegetables, one of the richest dietary sources of nitrate (EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain, 2008). NITRATE-IQ™ uses a water-soluble extract of spinach leaf (Spinacia oleracea) standardized to 9% dietary nitrate and 13% naturally occurring potassium. We’re not aware of published clinical trials on this specific extract; the research above covers dietary nitrate, whole spinach and an extract of red spinach (amaranth), a different plant.

Enovita™ Grape Seed Extract

Enovita™ is made from the seeds of white-wine grapes using water as the only extraction solvent, and it’s standardized to 95% OPCs (Schön et al., 2021). Its human trial used 300 mg a day, the amount in 4 scoops; 2 scoops provide 150 mg. Grape seed extract is generally well tolerated (National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, 2025).

Fulvic Acid

Fulvic acid (30 / 60 / 120 mg). Human evidence for fulvic acid at these amounts is limited, so we make no claims about what it does.

How the Formula Fits Together

NITRATE-IQ™ combines a measured nitrate source with Enovita™ grape seed extract. The nitrate feeds the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway described above (Lundberg et al., 2008). Enovita™ activated eNOS in cell-culture research (Schön et al., 2021), an effect that hasn’t been measured in people.

Safety and Drug Interactions

For context, regulators have set an acceptable daily intake (ADI) for nitrate from all sources of 3.7 mg per kg of body weight per day, about 259 mg for a 70 kg adult (EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, 2017). The labeled 1-scoop serving (135 mg) is about half that level. The 2-scoop serving is at about that level, and the 4-scoop serving is roughly double it, before counting nitrate from vegetables in your diet. Talk with your provider before using more than the labeled 1 scoop, especially if you have kidney concerns.

Dietary nitrate itself showed antiplatelet effects in a human study (Webb et al., 2008), so talk with your provider before use if you take blood thinners. Because the formula also supplies potassium, check with your provider if you take potassium-sparing diuretics, ACE inhibitors or ARBs (National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, 2022). The same goes for blood-pressure medications, PDE-5 inhibitors and organic nitrates.

Antiseptic mouthwash can reduce the mouth bacteria this pathway depends on (Kapil et al., 2013), so consider avoiding it for a few hours around your dose.

Pregnant or breastfeeding women should consult their healthcare provider before using this or any dietary supplement. This product is formulated for adults ages 18 and over. NITRATE-IQ™ is not a substitute for any medication, and nothing here is medical advice.

Extended FAQ

What do the serving sizes mean? One scoop (135 mg), the labeled daily direction, is an entry-level amount. The Supplement Facts panel also lists 2-scoop (270 mg) and 4-scoop (540 mg) servings. For context, a 2025 dose-response analysis linked roughly 500 mg of nitrate a day with a 2 mmHg change in blood pressure (Norouzzadeh et al., 2025). We tell you that plainly rather than implying a smaller serving does more than it does. Talk with your healthcare provider before using more than 1 scoop.

How do I take NITRATE-IQ™? Follow the directions on the label: 1 scoop daily, with food and water. The Supplement Facts panel also lists 2-scoop and 4-scoop serving sizes; talk with your healthcare provider before using more than 1 scoop.

How does the dose compare to what I was taking before? Many beet products don’t list their nitrate content, so an exact comparison usually isn’t possible. NITRATE-IQ™ lists a standardized amount per serving so you can build a routine around a known number.

Can I see the pathway respond? Some people use at-home saliva test strips, often sold as “nitric-oxide test strips,” after a dose. These strips show salivary nitrite only, the first step of the pathway (Lundberg et al., 2008); they don’t measure nitric oxide in your blood, blood pressure or circulation.

Does it contain caffeine or stimulants? No. It’s stimulant-free, with no caffeine.

Why is fulvic acid included if the evidence is limited? We list it because it’s in the formula, and we’re upfront that human evidence at these amounts is limited. We make no claims about what it does.

Is NITRATE-IQ™ GMP manufactured? Yes. NITRATE-IQ™ is GMP manufactured, as shown on the label.

You Came for the Nitrate. Now You Can Keep It and See It.

You already did the hard part: you believed in nitrate enough to try it. What changes now is everything around it: the source, the taste, the pigment and the mystery dose.

NITRATE-IQ™ is a beet-free, dose-transparent nitric-oxide drink mix. It supplies the same active compound as beet products, dietary nitrate, without the earthy taste, beeturia or an undisclosed dose.*

Learn More About NITRATE-IQ™ →

Backed by our satisfaction guarantee. See guarantee terms →

NITRATE-IQ™ may be a good fit when:

✓ a previous beet supplement was abandoned over earthy taste, beeturia or beet sugar

✓ you believe in nitrate but want a beet-free source you’ll actually finish

✓ you want a listed, standardized nitrate amount instead of a “beetroot powder” label

✓ stimulant-free daily support and a short ingredient list are priorities

✓ you want one tub with several serving sizes on the label

NITRATE-IQ™ may not be necessary when:

○ your current beet product is well tolerated and its taste, beeturia and undisclosed dose don’t bother you

○ an inexpensive food-based nitrate approach already fits comfortably into your diet

If you’re under a physician’s care for blood pressure or heart health, talk with your provider before adding any supplement.

Scientific References & Citations

Sources are cited as ingredient and mechanism research, not as studies of the finished product. Where an ingredient supplier conducted or sponsored a study, we note it.

Peer-Reviewed Research

Ashor, A. W., Lara, J., & Siervo, M. (2017). Medium-term effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Hypertension, 35(7), 1353–1359. https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000001305

Beckman, J. S., & Koppenol, W. H. (1996). Nitric oxide, superoxide, and peroxynitrite: The good, the bad, and ugly. American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, 271(5), C1424–C1437. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpcell.1996.271.5.C1424

Bondonno, C. P., Yang, X., Croft, K. D., Considine, M. J., Ward, N. C., Rich, L., Puddey, I. B., Swinny, E., Mubarak, A., & Hodgson, J. M. (2012). Flavonoid-rich apples and nitrate-rich spinach augment nitric oxide status and improve endothelial function in healthy men and women: A randomized controlled trial. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 52(1), 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2011.09.028

EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain. (2008). Nitrate in vegetables: Scientific opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain. EFSA Journal, 6(6), Article 689. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2008.689

EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS). (2017). Re-evaluation of sodium nitrate (E 251) and potassium nitrate (E 252) as food additives. EFSA Journal, 15(6), Article e04787. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4787

Kapil, V., Haydar, S. M. A., Pearl, V., Lundberg, J. O., Weitzberg, E., & Ahluwalia, A. (2013). Physiological role for nitrate-reducing oral bacteria in blood pressure control. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 55, 93–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2012.11.013

Lundberg, J. O., Weitzberg, E., & Gladwin, M. T. (2008). The nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway in physiology and therapeutics. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 7(2), 156–167. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2466

Moore, A. N., Haun, C. T., Kephart, W. C., Holland, A. M., Mobley, C. B., Pascoe, D. D., Roberts, M. D., & Martin, J. S. (2017). Red spinach extract increases ventilatory threshold during graded exercise testing. Sports, 5(4), Article 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports5040080

Norouzzadeh, M., Hasan Rashedi, M., Ghaemi, S., Saber, N., Mirdar Harijani, A., Habibi, H., Mostafavi, S., Sarv, F., Farhadnejad, H., Teymoori, F., Khaleghian, M., & Mirmiran, P. (2025). Plasma nitrate, dietary nitrate, blood pressure, and vascular health biomarkers: A GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition Journal, 24(1), Article 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-025-01114-8

Schön, C., Allegrini, P., Engelhart-Jentzsch, K., Riva, A., & Petrangolini, G. (2021). Grape seed extract positively modulates blood pressure and perceived stress: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in healthy volunteers. Nutrients, 13(2), Article 654. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020654

Siervo, M., Lara, J., Ogbonmwan, I., & Mathers, J. C. (2013). Inorganic nitrate and beetroot juice supplementation reduces blood pressure in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Nutrition, 143(6), 818–826. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.112.170233

Subramanian, D., & Gupta, S. (2016). Pharmacokinetic study of amaranth extract in healthy humans: A randomized trial. Nutrition, 32(7–8), 748–753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2015.12.041

Watts, A. R., Lennard, M. S., Mason, S. L., Tucker, G. T., & Woods, H. F. (1993). Beeturia and the biological fate of beetroot pigments. Pharmacogenetics, 3(6), 302–311. https://doi.org/10.1097/00008571-199312000-00004

Webb, A. J., Patel, N., Loukogeorgakis, S., Okorie, M., Aboud, Z., Misra, S., Rashid, R., Miall, P., Deanfield, J., Benjamin, N., MacAllister, R., Hobbs, A. J., & Ahluwalia, A. (2008). Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective, and antiplatelet properties of dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite. Hypertension, 51(3), 784–790. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.107.103523

Government and Reference Sources

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. (2025, February). Grape seed extract: Usefulness and safety. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/grape-seed-extract

National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2022, June 2). Potassium: Fact sheet for health professionals. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Potassium-HealthProfessional/

Quality Documentation

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (n.d.). Current good manufacturing practice in manufacturing, packaging, labeling, or holding operations for dietary supplements (21 C.F.R. Part 111). Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-111

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary. Consult your physician before use if you are pregnant or nursing, take medication (including blood-pressure medications, PDE-5 inhibitors, organic nitrates, blood thinners, potassium-sparing diuretics, ACE inhibitors or ARBs), or have a medical condition.