December 29, 2003
NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS
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Today's Topic: Chemicals in Your Body

Some readers are disturbed to learn that there are chemicals in their
bodies.  In fact, all of us are bags of chemicals held up by bones.  A
new study finds that a common chemical called sodium nitrite has a
useful function in the body by making blood vessels relax.  This leads
to increased blood flow and lower blood pressure.

What will upset some people is that sodium nitrite is used to cure
meat and some cheese.  A small number of scientists have tried for
years to link it to rare forms of cancer even though the data do not
suggest a link.  The new study reports that nitrite is converted into
nitric oxide in the body.  The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
was awarded in 1998 for the discovery 20 years earlier that nitric
oxide had important functions in the body.  The new study was
published in the December 2003 issue of Nature Medicine.
<
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nm/journal/v9/n12/abs/nm954.html >
(Free registration is required to see this abstract)

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Nitrite is used at very low
levels to prevent botulism in processed meat.  Nitrate (notice the
difference in spelling) has one more oxygen atom than does nitrite and
is found in much higher concentrations in many vegetables.  We eat
about 75 milligrams daily, while vegetarians can consume 250 mg
easily.  Some nitrate is converted to nitrite in the body, which is
now shown to provide beneficial effects when turned into nitric oxide.