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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?
What is the optimal timing and dose of nitrate-containing vegetables, such as beets and spinach, for improving athletic performance?
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?
What is the latest science on the performance-enhancing qualities of nitrate-rich vegetables?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover studies convinced the scientific establishment that nitrate-rich vegetables (such as beets) could noticeably improve athletic performance.
