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Increasing vegetable intake to obtain the health promoting and ergogenic effects of dietary nitrate

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 72, pages 1485–1489 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Increased consumption of dietary nitrate increases plasma nitrate and nitrite concentrations, and has been shown to elicit cardio-protective effects and improve exercise performance. Nitrate consumption in the habitual diet is mainly dependent on nitrate-rich vegetables, such as green leafy and root vegetables, with total vegetable consumption accounting for approximately 50–85% of our daily nitrate intake. Whereas ‘supplementation’ with dietary nitrate in research studies has mainly been accomplished through the use of (concentrated) nitrate-rich beetroot juice, dietary strategies focusing on increased intake of nitrate-rich vegetables may represent a similarly effective alternative for increasing dietary nitrate intake and, as such, obtaining the associated cardiovascular health and ergogenic benefits.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows CMTvdA, LJCvL, MTEH and LBV designed research. All authors wrote the paper; CMTvdA had primary responsibility for final content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study was part of the EAT2MOVE project and supported by a grant from the Province of Gelderland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NUTRIM, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Cindy M. T. Van der Avoort, Luc J. C. Van Loon & Lex B. Verdijk

  2. Institute of Sport and Exercise Studies, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Cindy M. T. Van der Avoort & Luc J. C. Van Loon

  3. Institute for Health Sciences, Department of Physiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Cindy M. T. Van der Avoort & Maria T. E. Hopman

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  1. Cindy M. T. Van der Avoort
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  2. Luc J. C. Van Loon
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  4. Lex B. Verdijk
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Correspondence to Lex B. Verdijk.

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Van der Avoort, C.M.T., Van Loon, L.J.C., Hopman, M.T.E. et al. Increasing vegetable intake to obtain the health promoting and ergogenic effects of dietary nitrate. Eur J Clin Nutr 72, 1485–1489 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0140-z

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