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The Treatment of Hypertension with Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Lifestyle and Pharmacologic Therapies
Published in Stephen T. Sinatra, Mark C. Houston, Nutritional and Integrative Strategies in Cardiovascular Medicine, 2022
The pathway for NO generation involves the activity of facultative oral microflora and the gastric/entero-salivary cycle to facilitate the reduction of inorganic NO3(−), ingested in the diet, to inorganic NO2(−). This NO2(−) eventually enters the circulation where, through the activity of numerous and distinct NO2(−) reductases, it is chemically reduced to NO [6,333–334]. Raw or cooked beets, beet juice and extract of dark green leafy vegetables (kale and spinach) are concentrated dietary sources of inorganic nitrates. This is the alternate pathway to the arginine NO/eNOS pathway mediated though eNOS. Beet juice at a dose of 250 mL/day reduces BP in 30–60 minutes in normotensive, prehypertensive or mild hypertensive subjects [335,336]. A meta-analysis of DBRPCTs shows that daily beetroot juice consumption of 5.1–45 mmol (321–2,790 mg) over a period from 2 hours to 15 days is associated with dose-dependent changes in SBP (mean reduction −4.4 mmHg; p < 0.001) [337]. In a blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study, the acute effects of an orally disintegrating lozenge that generates nitric oxide (NO) in the oral cavity evaluated the effects on BP response, endothelial function and vascular compliance in 30 unmedicated hypertensive patients with an average baseline BP of 144 ± 3/91 ± 1 mmHg [338].
Plant Source Foods
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
Beetroot – also known as beet, red beet, and table beet – is a tuber or root vegetable of the plant Beta vulgaris in the Chenopodiaceae family (classical classification) or Amaranthaceae family (phylogenetic classification). There are several cultivated varieties of beetroot: sugar beet, red beetroot, and yellow or golden beetroot. Sugar beet with white flesh is used for cuisine and sugar production as cited previously in this chapter. Red beetroot and golden beetroot with violet red and yellow flesh, respectively, are mostly used for cuisine and medicine, but they cannot produce sugar (181–183). Beetroot can be eaten raw, used for juice extraction, baked, or boiled. Beets have been used in traditional medicine to treat constipation, gut, and joint pain. Modern pharmacology shows that red beet extracts exhibit antihypertensive and hypoglycemic activity as well as excellent antioxidant property (181). The past decade is characterized by an explosive growth of interest in the impact of red beetroot on human health (181–185).
Selected Functional Foods That Combat the Effects of Hyperglycemia and Chronic Inflammation
Published in Robert Fried, Richard M. Carlton, Type 2 Diabetes, 2018
Robert Fried, Richard M. Carlton
Beets (red beetroot) are rich in nitrates that metabolize to nitrite that, in turn, delivers NO essential to blood vessel function and, therefore, cardiovascular health (Hobbs, Kaffa, George et al. 2012; Lundberg, Weitzberg, and Gladwin. 2008). In fact, NO also helps maintain healthy blood glucose levels, and it protects blood vessels often impaired in diabetes.
Cellulolytic bacteria in the large intestine of mammals
Published in Gut Microbes, 2022
Alicia Froidurot, Véronique Julliand
Only 12 putative cellulase genes were identified in giant panda feces, including three enzymes of the GH5 family and two of the GH8 family.106 This could explain why cellulose digestibility is weak in this mammal, even if it feeds on bamboo.109 In the Iberian lynx, only two enzymes in the GH5 family and four enzymes in GH51 were detected.107 A study of dogs on a high-fiber diet (7.5% of beet pulp) compared with a control diet (lower-fiber diet) revealed a greater amount of GHs in the controlled-diet setting, which was counterintuitive to the authors’ hypothesis.110 Although the total sequence number was different between samples (of the high-fiber and the controlled diet), the percentage of each gene within its gene family was similar for each of them. Interestingly, in the case of the high-fiber diet, more GHs belonged to families know to comprise cellulolytic enzymes, such a GH5 (31 vs. 18), GH8 (3 vs. 2), GH9 (2 vs. 0), and GH51 (19 vs. 10).
Balance of saccharolysis and proteolysis underpins improvements in stool quality induced by adding a fiber bundle containing bound polyphenols to either hydrolyzed meat or grain-rich foods
Published in Gut Microbes, 2019
Matthew I. Jackson, Dennis E. Jewell
While there are a number of published studies on the effect of food on the canine microbiome, relatively few have specifically examined the effect of the addition of fiber to the food. One study that examined the microbiome of dogs with chronic diarrhea found a greater similarity between those dogs and healthy dogs after consuming a fiber-supplemented food (banana flakes, rice brain, and Yeast SAFpro 190), as measured via denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis.30 Significantly lower counts of Desulfovibrionales were seen with the addition of that fiber blend, similar to the present study when the fiber bundle was added to either the HM or GR food backgrounds. In contrast to other studies in which addition of beet pulp or potato fiber decreased Fusobacteria and increased Firmicutes,16,17 the present study found both increases and decreases in Firmicutes and few significant differences in Fusobacteria on addition of the fiber bundle to either the HM or GR foods. These varying results may be explained by differences in the compositions and thus fermentability of the added fibers. Of course, other studies may not be directly comparable to the present one due to differences in design and methodology.
Functional Food and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Treatment: A Review
Published in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2018
Sedigheh Asgary, Ali Rastqar, Mahtab Keshvari
Asgary et al. compared the effects of raw beetroot juice and cooked beetroot on blood pressure, FMD, lipid profile, and inflammatory markers in hypertensive individuals. Twenty-four hypertensive subjects aged 25–68 years were randomly assigned to raw beet juice or cooked beets both for 2 weeks, intermittent by a 2-week washout period, in a crossover, unblinded, non-placebo-controlled design. Results showed a significant improvement of FMD and significant reduction in blood pressure and inflammatory cytokines following consumption of either of the preparations. Between-groups comparisons showed that raw beetroot juice was more effective than cooked beetroot in increasing of FMD and reducing high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and TNF-α. The authors concluded that both preparations of beetroot are effective in improving blood pressure, endothelial function, and systemic inflammation, and that raw beetroot juice has a greater effect versus cooked beetroot on the latter 2 factors (172).