Dietary Nitrate Redeems Itself!
DIETARY NITRATE MAKES MUSCLES MORE FUEL-EFFICIENT
A study found that a compound found in vegetables such as spinach and beets, when mixed with friendly bacteria in the mouth, improves the efficiency of energy-producing powerhouses known as mitochondria.
Little has been known about nitrate, assumed by some to lack nutritional value, suspected of being toxic and yet known to lower blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels. In this study, healthy test subjects who took a small dose of inorganic nitrate daily for three days used less oxygen while riding an exercise bicycle. Nitrate, and the nitric oxides it produces, appeared to permit mitochondria to make energy on less protein and this efficiency effect was fairly immediate.
The researchers do not recommend that people take inorganic nitrate supplements but they do suggest that they might have found one explanation for the well-known health benefits of vegetables and leafy, green vegetables in particular. Also, the study team cautioned against the use of strong mouthwashes, which destroy the oral bacteria required to reduce nitrate, the first step in this process. Published in the February, 2011 issue of Cell Metabolism, this study is now available online at http://bit.ly/gdNPaS.
The Health Benefits of Green Tea
Did you know?
Tea lovers’ beverage of choice lowers blood pressure.
Drinking just a half-cup of green or oolong tea per day reduces a person’s risk of high blood pressure by almost 50%.
People who drink at least two and a half cups per day reduce their risk even more!
Risk is reduced even if tea drinkers have known risk factors for high blood pressure, such as high sodium intake.
