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  1. So Should We Drink Beet Juice or Not? So Should We Drink Beet Juice or Not? March 5, 2012

    In the context of a healthy plant-based diet, the nitrates in vegetables can safely be converted into nitric oxide, which can boost athletic performance and may help prevent heart disease.

  2. Vitamin C-Enriched Bacon Vitamin C-Enriched Bacon March 2, 2012

    The addition of vitamin C to processed (cured) meats such as bacon may actually make them more carcinogenic.

  3. Are Nitrates Pollutants or Nutrients? Are Nitrates Pollutants or Nutrients? February 28, 2012

    Phytonutrients such as vitamin C prevent the formation of nitrosamines from nitrites, which explains why adding nitrite preservatives to processed meat can be harmful, but adding more vegetables and their nitrite-forming nitrates to our diet can be helpful.

  4. Is Bacon Good or Is Spinach Bad? Is Bacon Good or Is Spinach Bad? February 23, 2012

    If the nitrates in vegetables such as greens are health-promoting because they can be turned into nitrites and then nitric oxide inside our bodies, what about the nitrites added to cured meats such as bacon, ham, and hot dogs?

  5. Vegetables Rate by Nitrate Vegetables Rate by Nitrate February 22, 2012

    If nitrates can boost athletic performance and protect against heart disease, which vegetables have the most: beans, bulb vegetables (like garlic and onions), fruiting vegetables (like eggplant and squash), greens (such as arugula), mushrooms, root vegetables (such as carrots and beets), or stem vegetables (such as celery and rhubarb)?

  1. Hearts Shouldn’t Skip a Beet Hearts Shouldn’t Skip a Beet February 21, 2012

    The nitrate in vegetables, which the body can turn into the vasodilator nitric oxide, may help explain the role dark green leafy vegetables play in the prevention and treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease.

  2. Asparagus Pee Asparagus Pee February 17, 2012

    Young infants and perhaps those with recurrent oxalate kidney stones should avoid beets, but most commonly the chief side effect is beeturia, the harmless passage of pink urine, though not all are affected, akin to the malodorous urine (“stinky pee”) that sometimes results from asparagus consumption.

  3. Don’t Use Antiseptic Mouthwash Don’t Use Antiseptic Mouthwash February 15, 2012

    The natural flora on our tongue (lingual bacteria) is essential for the athletic performance-enhancing effect of the nitrates in vegetables such as beetroot.

  4. Priming the Proton Pump Priming the Proton Pump February 14, 2012

    To understand how beets could reduce the oxygen cost of exercise while improving athletic performance, one must review the biochemistry of energy production (ATP synthase) and the body’s conversion of nitrates to nitrites into nitric oxide.