Mother Was Right: Eat Your Vegetables and Do Not Spit!

摘要

Do not spit in the plate from which you eat. — Italian proverb Higher incidence of hypertension, atherosclerosis, and diabetes is a price that the “industrialized” world pays for abrupt changes in lifestyle and habits. These diseases increase rapidly in fast growing economies, where changes in diet are a significant factor with higher intake in food rich in cholesterol, saturated fat, salt, and sugar. More abundant consumption of fruits and vegetables is often recommended to reduce the occurrence of these diseases. Yet, as stated by Lundberg et al, few studies have thoroughly addressed the relationship between the intake of fruits and vegetables and cardiovascular disease.1 Appel et al found that in subjects with borderline hypertension (BHT) the intake of vegetables decreased blood pressure almost to the same extent as with standard antihypertensive monotherapy suggesting that diet alone can improve cardiovascular health.2 Although the factors in green leafy vegetables that account for this protection remained largely unknown, bioconversion of inorganic nitrate to nitrite, NO, and other secondary reaction products (nitrosoitrosyl compounds) may play a key role in decreasing hypertension.1In the present issue of Hypertension , the study by Webb et al3 shows that ingestion of beet juice, which is high in dietary nitriteitrate, by healthy volunteers not only markedly reduced blood pressure (≈10 mm Hg), but also prevented endothelial dysfunction after ischemia-reperfusion (without altering preischemic artery dilation) and decreased ex vivo platelet aggregation.3 The ingestion of beet juice was coincident with a dramatic increase in plasma levels of nitrate and nitrite. The study further showed that bacterial mediated conversion of nitrate to nitrite on the tongue could significantly increase nitrite in the plasma leading to …