Chews your post-meal treat carefully.
While some downsides of chewing gum have been discovered, other types may actually benefit your health.
Now, new research shows that popping a piece after a meal could boost the benefits of certain vegetables, which is especially good news for nearly half of US adults living with high blood pressure.
It’s a no-brainer that eating vegetables has a plethora of benefits, including providing compounds that improve heart health, like antioxidants and nitrates.
And while certain vegetables are high in nitrates that provide cardiovascular benefits like increased blood flow and lowered blood pressure, they need to be converted by the body.
A study published last week in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has found that chewing sugary gum after eating nitrate-rich veggies like spinach, beets and kale may help the process along.
In order for the body to reap the benefits of nitrates absorbed by vegetables from soil, the chemical compound has to be converted to nitric oxide by bacteria in the mouth.
One theory to increase the amount of converted nitrates is to increase the acidity in saliva to enhance the process.
Participants chewed either sugar-containing Hubba Bubba bubble gum or sugar-free Wrigley’s Extra for three to six hours after drinking beetroot juice, which is higher in nitrates than cooked beetroot.
Not only did the sugary gum increase saliva acidity, but it also led to a 45% higher amount of nitrite in the mouth and a 25% higher level of nitrite around the body compared to the sugar-free option.
Chomping on the gum with sugar also significantly decreased blood pressure, measured by systolic blood pressure (when the heart pushes blood out) and diastolic blood pressure (when the heart relaxes between beats.)
While the researchers caution that sugary gum shouldn’t be the first option to manage blood pressure, their findings are promising for athletes using beetroot to improve athletic performance.
They also noted that the effects were short-term, merely lasting hours, and that long-term use of a product high in sugar could be detrimental to dental health.
Nitrates are already recognized as a widely-used supplement for exercise to increase blood flow to the muscles and delay fatigue, as well as potentially improve brain function.
However, the study is promising for both temporarily lowering blood pressure and enhancing exercise after eating nitrate-rich vegetables.
“Our findings provide a proof of concept that we may be able to improve how the body processes dietary nitrate, and future research should focus on developing tooth-friendly, metabolically sound approaches that achieve the same effect,” co-author Dr. Charlotte Mills said in a press release.
“The challenge now is to identify alternative strategies that are both effective and appropriate for long-term use.”
