The Healing Power of Food: Nitric Oxide

But the woman looked upon its fruit and saw that it was 

1. Good for food 

2. A delight to the eyes and

3. To be desired to make one wise.

In our world today, so many of our so-called foods are processed, genetically modified and polluted with herbicides and pesticides. These foods eventually cause disease as they are toxic to our bodies. They are decorated and marketed to be a delight to our eyes. They look delicious and some offer enjoyment, status and belonging. Others are convenient, cheap, accessible and fast. But, right beside this tree of knowledge of good and evil that brought death was the tree of life.

I asked my 71-year-old church friend, "Fred, what caused your diabetes?" He looked a little perplexed. I said, "The answer is quite simple." He then clued in and replied, "Oh, sugary foods." What kind of sugary foods? White rice and white flour, processed of it's bran covering (fibre), natural oils and vitamins, refined sugars and sweeteners. Also, most desserts, fried foods, heated oils, and sugary drinks. The simple answer: Food caused his Diabetes.

We face the same choice that Adam and Eve faced in Eden daily, and the cells in our bodies record these decisions over decades and manifest as disease.

Nitric Oxide: The Spark of Life

In the 1970s, vascular scientists noticed that when the endothelium, the one-cell lining of the blood vessels, was intact, the arteries relaxed. Remove or damage the endothelium, and the vessels hardened in spasm. Something invisible was being released by the endothelial cells. They named this unidentified compound EDRF - endothelium-derived relaxing factor.

Ferid Murad — 1977: Showed that nitrovasodilators (e.g., nitroglycerin) release nitric oxide, activating guanylate cyclase and relaxing smooth muscle, relieving chest pain. NobelPrize.org

Robert F. Furchgott — 1980: Discovered a mysterious substance, which he named endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), was made by endothelial cells.

Louis J. Ignarro — 1986: Deduced that EDRF is nitric oxide, at that time considered a toxic gas that came from car exhausts, a smog pollutant, and an unstable chemical that lasted only seconds. 

In 1998, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to these three: Murad, Furchgott, and Ignarro, for the discovery of nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

Nitric oxide relaxes arteries, lowers blood pressure, prevents clotting, calms inflammation and signals endothelial repair. It's your own body's spark of life. It is produced in the blood vessels, brain cells and the skin.

When someone has chest pain from a blocked artery, they can spray nitroglycerin under their tongue and get relief as it turns into nitric oxide in the heart and expands the vessels. Ironically, Alfred Nobel made a fortune when he discovered nitroglycerin could be used to make dynamite. However, dynamite was not only used for his original intent for mining and railroads, but also in war and destruction. He became known as the merchant of death. 

Lauder Brunton, a distinguished British physician, had found in 1867 that nitrates were effective in relieving pains in angina pectoris. When Nobel's physicians recommended nitroglycerine as a remedy for his heart pain (angina) in 1890, he declined it, most likely as he believed the industrial nitroglycerin he was working with was causing his headaches.. 

In order to leave a good legacy, Nobel bequeathed his fortune to fund the Nobel Prizes in 1895, and one of those prizes was to be in Physiology or Medicine. He passed away a year later from a hemorrhagic stroke at age 63.

Nitric Oxide: The Fork in the Road

Nitric oxide is produced in the body, but it also receives a backup supply from the diet. The power of nitric oxide lies in its ability to perform multiple functions, particularly in widening the body's highways and roads to deliver the life-giving blood you have. This blood consists of not only red blood cells but also white blood cells, which comprise your immune system, as well as platelets, nutrients, and hormones. If the highways are constricted like in a traffic jam, the delivery trucks and emergency services cannot reach every cell in your body. Only one cell or one organ needs to be compromised to affect one's health.

1. The Internal Pathway

The body converts the amino acid, L-arginine, into nitric oxide through an enzyme in the endothelial cells, eNOS (endothelial nitric oxide synthase).

This enzyme is stimulated by:

1. Shear stress from exercise: High-intensity interval training (HIIT), and deep nasal breathing

2. Antioxidants called polyphenols: Found in berries, cocoa, green tea, red wine

3. L-citrulline and L-arginine. Watermelon, legumes (beans) and nuts

4. Omega 3s. Fish, algae

5. Sleep. Nighttime nitric oxide pulses

eNOS is inhibited by:

1. Smoking

2. Diabetes

3. Oils and Lipid Peroxidation. Heated and processed oils (fried foods) oxidize lipids, which damage endothelial membranes, consume NO and destabilize eNOS

4. Glycation (from high sugar). High glucose glycosylates proteins to create advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which damage endothelial cells and create oxidative stress.

5. Oxidative stress. Free radicals, processed meats, excess fat, especially visceral fat around the organs, heavy metals, and high blood pressure make eNOS produce superoxide instead of nitric oxide, causing further damage. This is called eNOS uncoupling. eNOS under oxidative stress becomes harmful rather than helpful.

6. Aging. eNOS activity declines with age.

7. Inflammation.

When your body is in a state of inflammation (measured by such blood markers as hsCRP, homocysteine and in the heart, myeloperoxidase and Lp-PLA2), instead of making nitric oxide, eNOS makes superoxide, which creates a vicious cycle of endothelial damage. 

The first step is to focus on reducing your inflammatory markers by eliminating foods and environmental factors that trigger lipid peroxidation, glycation, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Instead, incorporate foods, exercise, and rest (including sleep) that can help restore an anti-inflammatory body chemistry, thereby healing the endothelial cells.

So, largely, lifestyle habits in diet, exercise, and sleep regulate good nitric oxide production that allows blood vessels to expand and let your life-giving blood to flow with its delivery trucks of oxygen and nutrients and garbage trucks to take away your metabolic waste products.

2. The Diet Pathway

The diet pathway bypasses damaged endothelium. It's like a jump-start charge to a battery (eNOS) that is low in energy. It's especially important with Diabetes and cardiovascular disease when eNOS is impaired. It's a 5-step process.

Step 1: Eating Foods Rich in Nitrates (NO₃⁻)

• Where from? Leafy greens (spinach, arugula, lettuce), beets, celery, and other vegetables.

• How much? 300 mg of nitrate in one meal seems to be the threshold to create enough nitric oxide effect (see below for a list of nitrate-rich foods)

• What happens? Dietary nitrate gets absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream → plasma nitrate levels rise.

• Inhibitors: Low-vegetable diets, high processed foods, and cooking/boiling (can leach out nitrates).

  I aim to include salad greens in every meal, topping my sourdough bread and steel-cut oatmeal with arugula, as this provides nitric oxide for about 90 minutes after thoroughly chewing the leaves.

Step 2: Concentration in Salivary Glands

• About 25% of circulating nitrate is actively taken up by the salivary glands.

• Salivary glands concentrate nitrate 10× higher than in plasma in the blood.

• Inhibitors: Dehydration (reduces saliva flow), certain drugs (e.g., proton pump inhibitors may alter salivary nitrate handling).

The salivary glands slowly release this highly concentrated nitrate into your saliva for the next 90 minutes. Just consider the steady stream of nitric oxide coursing from mouth to blood to cells. This is an advantage of chewing your veggies over blending them and then drinking the mixture without chewing/mixing it with your saliva. Also, by chewing, you increase the blood flow to your head and brain. Chew your food well.

Step 3: Reduction to Nitrite (NO₂⁻) by Oral Bacteria

• In the mouth, commensal anaerobic bacteria (on the tongue and in crypts) reduce nitrate → nitrite.

• This is essential. Humans don't have the enzyme for this conversion — we rely on bacteria.

• Inhibitors:

  • Antibacterial mouthwash (kills bacteria that perform this step).

  • Chlorinated water (tap water) can reduce bacterial activity.

  • Poor oral microbiome health (antibiotics, lack of diversity).

  • Some toothpastes alter the oral bacteria.

Again, chewing here allows the bacteria to break down the nitrates in your veggies into nitrites, which can then be turned into nitric oxide in the stomach below.

Step 4: Swallowing Nitrite & Stomach Conversion

• Saliva rich in nitrite is swallowed.

• In the acidic stomach, nitrite → nitric oxide (NO) + other reactive nitrogen species.

• This NO diffuses locally (helping with gut defence) and into circulation.

• Inhibitors:

  Low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria, PPIs) → less conversion to NO.

  Alkaline antacids.

  Proton pump inhibitor drugs for ulcers

Step 5: Circulation and Tissue Conversion

• Remaining plasma nitrite can be converted to NO in tissues, especially low-oxygen environments (like exercising muscle, ischemic heart tissue).

• This provides a "backup system" for NO when oxygen or eNOS is limited.

• Inhibitors: Oxidative stress rapidly degrades NO, smoking (scavenges NO), and high-fat processed diets (increase superoxide).

Exercise enhances nitrite conversion to nitric oxide in tissues due to lower oxygenation as you exercise, which then expands your blood vessels for my blood and oxygen as you breathe faster and blood circulates more thoroughly in the muscles that require oxygen and nutrients to produce energy.

Highest Nitrate Foods

How Long Dietary Nitrate Powers NO

• 15–30 minutes after eating a nitrate-rich meal (e.g., beet juice or leafy greens), plasma nitrate levels start rising.

• Within ~1–3 hours, plasma nitrates and nitrites peak significantly. In one beet juice study, nitrates rose about 6-fold; nitrites 4-fold.

• The half-life of elevated plasma nitrates is 5–10 hours, meaning enhanced NO availability persists over several hours. MDPI

• Approximately 25% of plasma nitrate is recycled via the salivary glands, becoming up to 10× concentrated in saliva versus plasma. Oral bacteria then reduce it to nitrite, which converts to NO in the stomach.

Food as Medicine

Food is not merely a pleasure, a hobby or calories.

Food is chemistry. Food is pharmacology. Food is medicine.

• Pomegranate juice: reduced carotid IMT by 30% in one year

• Garlic (aged extract): lowered coronary plaque volume by 8% in people with diabetes over 12 months

• Oats & flaxseed: soluble fibre binding cholesterol, lowering LDL and calming inflammation

• Berries: antioxidants halting LDL oxidation

• Natto & vitamin K2: pulling calcium out of arteries and back into bone

• Leafy greens & beets: Provide nitrate reservoirs for nitric oxide

Each food targets a different mechanism. Together, they form a multi-targeted cocktail without side effects.

Drugs vs Foods

Drugs

• Statins: LDL ↓50%, plaque regression ~1% after 2 yrs (ASTEROID).

• PCSK9 inhibitors + statins: LDL ↓60%, plaque regression ~1% in 18 mo (GLAGOV).

Foods

• Lifestyle (Ornish): LDL ↓37%, angiographic regression in 1 yr, sustained for 5 yrs.

• Esselstyn: LDL <80 mg/dL (↓60-70%), total cholesterol <150 mg/dL, disease arrested or reversed, 95% no recurrent events.

Triple Therapy Reversal (Food, Exercise, Fasting)

• My results: LDL ↓ 64% in 12 weeks (168 → 61); CIMT reversal 1.8mm to 0.86mm (full reversal in carotids in 3 months)

Drugs change numbers. Food, exercise, and fasting heal the system.

The Stomach Constraint

Every system has a bottleneck. In business, it's production capacity. In the body, it's the size of the stomach and the amount of blood to supply nutrients and remove metabolic waste.

You can only eat so much. Every bite displaces another.

Why fill the stomach with endothelial toxins — refined oils, sugary desserts — when the same constraint could be used for healing foods?

The stomach becomes the site of choice. The constraint forces a decision: the Tree of Life or the toxic fruit.

Do We Eat for Taste or for Health?

We've been conditioned to desire food that is marketed as delicious and beautiful. To try food as an experience by visiting top reviewed restaurants with Michelin stars or rave reviews from food critics. To enjoy the convenience of simple, fast, cheap, crunchy, sugary delights in fast foods.

It is perhaps only our parents who emphasize the importance of eating for health, but for the most part, this sage advice is ignored. Yet, their words may still resonate in our hearts when we receive a disease diagnosis.

What do you eat for?

For taste and pleasure or perhaps status and experience?

Or for life and health?

If both could be true, even better.

I am working with artisans and food companies to create wholesome, healthy, tasty, pleasure-filled experiences. Check out 123dough.com and 123dough.ca (but we have a long way to go to reach our ideal vision).

Reflection

How can simple foods without ingredient labels cure our number one disease killers when we replace the foods promoted by industry, which are enticing due to their marketing, accessibility, speed, and low cost, but of very low quality?

Read on for a life-changing question (only one-minute more). It helped me in my life and I hope it helps you in yours.