Each food reacts with the human body differently, but there is little knowledge of how individual nutrients effect our bodies. Even nutrients that are known about may have underlying causes or contribute to the body in a different aspect, potentially negatively. Nitrates are of one of the newest studies being conducted to further knowledge of nutrition.
On February 1st, 2011 an article from Science Daily, researchers report another positive aspect that fruits and vegetables should be a large portion of the human diet. Nitrates found in fruits and vegetables, in particular spinach and red beets, have been found to decrease a healthy individual’s oxygen intake during exercise. Previously it had been reported that nitrates were harmful to the body. The article warns that researchers are not recommending taking nitrate dietary supplements, but rather more vegetables that contain nitrates.
Athletes in particular may be interested in nitrates with the positive effects. There should be a warning on changing an already effective diet drastically; there is so little information available about what a body needs. But people had been healthy and not overweight when they consumed more fruits and vegetables.
Posted by Reed Allen (1)
I had never actually considered the role nitrates played in animal digestion before reading this article. In fact, I only really thought of nitrates in terms of the role they play in the nitrogen cycle. It is really interesting to learn about the the positive effect they have on the body by enhancing mitochondrial activity, thereby allowing more efficient oxygen intake. We all know that fruits and vegetables are a great dietary source of various vitamins and fiber, but to find that they have even more to offer than that is really neat. But I think what I found most surprising from this article was potential harm mouthwash can have by actually blocking the effects of nitrates. I would not be surprised to see efforts being made towards a "non-nitrate-blocking" mouthwash in the near future, assuming these findings on nitrates will be widespread. I look forward to finding out more on the findings of the research being done on long-term effects of nitrate intake.
ReplyDeletePosted by Brianna Lee
This post is rather amusing to me. It seems like adding another reason to eat more fruits and vegetables is just a drop in the bucket, because there are already so many known benefits. On the other hand, in this day and age of junk food and cheap calories, perhaps people need all the reasons they can get to eat more healthy.
ReplyDeletePosted by Derrick Xu
Like one of the previous posts, I wouldn’t have considered nitrates as part of my daily diet, but I knew that they were present in fruits, vegetables and meats. It is a great finding that nitrates found in fruits and vegetables can help mitochondria be more efficient. A PNAS article published in 2007 (I believe) by Dr. N.S. Bryan at the University of Texas, Houston stated that mice fed extra nitrates and nitrites had 48% less cell death after suffering a heart attack. Compared to 59% “greater injury” in mice that had low nitrates and nitrites in their diet. So if this were applied to humans, changes in our diet could be highly beneficial. If this catches on, you may begin to see food labels stating “good source of daily nitrates” similar to labels stating “good source of antioxidants”, which began approximately a decade ago.
ReplyDeletePosted by Nelson Milano
I have to agree with another post above me, this article encourages eating fruits and vegetables to promote decreased oxygen intake, which is a sub par reason. This article wouldn't change how often or how many fruits and vegetables I eat. The title is "Want more efficient muscles? Eat your spinach" yet barely discusses the effects nitrates have on muscles. I think the research results could have been discussed more to demonstrate exactly how nitrates make a difference in the body during exercise. However, once more research and testing has been done, I believe that we will soon be hearing positive results about nitrates.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments that not enough information has been produced about nitrates to deem them a vital nutrient. The science of nutrition constantly changes. There is very little known about how each individual molecule will effect the human body. Several factors contribute to the complexity of nutrition, the sheer number of different molecules, the complexity of the system, and in biology there are always exceptions. I also agree with Nelson that labels may start advertising their content of nitrates.
ReplyDeletePosted by Reed Allen