Dietary nitrate can aid mental and physical performance for athletes.
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Extract:
Over the past 30 years, fears over health and the environment have galvanised governments across Europe and the US to spend billions trying to eradicate nitrate from our drinking water. But, as Andrew Hamilton explains, recent research suggests that not only is dietary nitrate far from harmful, it could actually significantly aid mental and physical performance for athletes.
It can be a topsy-turvy world sometimes. Just when you think you’ve got something sussed, along comes new research that turns everything upside down. Take nitrate in food and water for example. For the past three decades, there’s been a concerted effort to reduce levels of dietary nitrates on a number of health grounds. These fears have centred around a number of particular health conditions, as well as a more general concern about long-term exposure to dietary nitrates and an increased risk of cancer.
However, new findings on nitrate metabolism in the body look set completely reverse our previous thinking!
