Why it's a good thing beets don't stink

Check out this Cool blog post about beets and mouthwash. Beets contain lots of nitrate. Nitric oxide was recently shown in a Swedish study to increase the production of ATP from a given amount of oxygen. Even cooler, they figured out the mechanism. Nitric oxide increases the efficiency of aerobic respiration by activating a protein that reduces the permeability of mitochondrial membranes to protons. Thus a higher percentage of the protons making up the electrochemical gradient established by the electron transport system end up flowing through ATP synthase rather than leaking through the membranes of the mitochondria. Pretty sweet.

In order for the nitrate to be converted to nitric oxide, though, it must first be converted to nitrite (in which nitrogen has been reduced). We don't have the enzymes necessary for the conversion of nitrate to nitrite. Instead, we rely on salivary bacteria to do this for us. Mouthwash kills bacteria; even the good kind. Another study measured the plasma levels of nitric oxide following beet consumption. Beet eaters who gargled had significantly lower levels of nitrogen oxide in their plasma.

It would be a bummer if garlic was our best source of nitrate.