Nitrates in Food to Help Fight Respiratory Tract Infections
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that an infusion of spinach leaves has evidently been used since ancient times to treat respiratory symptoms.
All Videos for Beet Juice
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Antibacterial Toothpaste: Harmful, Helpful, or Harmless?
Is triclosan in Colgate Total toothpaste safe in regards to the nitrate-reducing bacteria on our tongue and potential endocrine-disrupting effects on thyroid function and obesity?
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“Veg-Table” Dietary Nitrate Scoring Method
What is the optimal timing and dose of nitrate-containing vegetables, such as beets and spinach, for improving athletic performance?
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Oxygenating Blood with Nitrate-Rich Vegetables
Vegetables such as beets and arugula can improve athletic performance by improving oxygen delivery and utilization. But, what about for those who really need it—such as those with emphysema, high blood pressure, and peripheral artery disease?
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Whole Beets vs. Juice for Improving Athletic Performance
What is the latest science on the performance-enhancing qualities of nitrate-rich vegetables?
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So Should We Drink Beet Juice, or Not?
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.
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Are Nitrates Pollutants or Nutrients?
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, with their nitrite-forming nitrates, to our diet can be helpful.
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Hearts Shouldn’t Skip a Beet
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.
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Pretty in Pee-nk
Beeturia, the passage of pink urine after beetroot consumption, is a reminder that phytonutrients circulate throughout our bloodstream—explaining the connection between “garlic breath,” and the use of garlic as an adjunct treatment for pneumonia.
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Asparagus Pee
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.
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Out of the Lab Onto the Track
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover studies convinced the scientific establishment that nitrate-rich vegetables (such as beets) could noticeably improve athletic performance.
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Don’t Use Antiseptic Mouthwash
The natural flora on our tongue (lingual bacteria) are essential for the athletic performance-enhancing effect of the nitrates in vegetables such as beetroot.
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Priming the Proton Pump
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.
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Doping with Beet Juice
Beets found to significantly improve athletic performance while reducing oxygen needs—upsetting a fundamental tenet of sports physiology.
