Chewing gum can lower blood pressure, scientists discover… as long as you have just eaten beetroot or spinach

Chewing bubble gum after eating vegetables such as beetroot, spinach or kale could lower blood pressure and help protect your heart, a study suggests.

Leafy greens and root vegetables are high in nitrates, which are beneficial to the heart.

They trigger a process in the body that widens blood vessels, improves blood flow and helps muscles produce energy more efficiently.

Researchers at King’s College London say this process can significantly lower blood pressure – slashing the risk of a deadly heart attack or stroke. 

However for this potentially life-saving effect to happen, the nitrate has to be converted into another chemical, called nitrite, by bacteria in the mouth.

Researchers at Kings College London and the University of Reading were investigating how to boost that reaction and found that sugary chewing gum has the desired effect.

Dr Andrew Webb, a cardiovascular expert at King’s College London, said: ‘We previously found that combining grapefruit juice with beetroot juice decreased the acidity of the saliva and inhibited the conversion of nitrate to nitrite in the saliva.

‘So, we wanted to formally test whether doing the opposite – increasing the acidity of the saliva – would enhance the conversion of nitrate to nitrite.’

Volunteers were given either Hubba Bubba, which has a high sugar content, or sugar-free Wrigley’s Extra to chew for several hours after drinking a shot of beetroot juice.

Trial results from 14 people found chewing sugary gum after beetroot juice led to significantly more nitrites — turbo-charging health effects of the vegetables.

Sugar-free gum did not have the same effects.

The researchers also said that gum works better than sweets or pop because it stays in the mouth longer.

‘The effects were only short-term, lasting several hours — and long-term use of sugar- containing products would not be recommended for dental health,’ says Dr Webb.

‘Nonetheless, the tradition of following a main course with a dessert may temporarily increase blood pressure-lowering.’

The need for more high blood pressure treatments is clear. 

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects 14million adults in the UK and numbers are rising.

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries. This pressure is created by the heart: each time it beats, it squeezes blood into the arteries so it can circulate around the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients to organs and tissues.

A certain level of pressure is needed to move blood and oxygen around the body, and this naturally rises and falls throughout the day.

When blood pressure is consistently too high it puts strain on the arteries. Over time they can become damaged and narrower, making it easier for fatty deposits to build up. This raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Those in the study, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, drank 70ml of beetroot juice then chewed gum for three to six hours — having a new piece every 30 minutes.

Blood pressure and nitrite levels were checked for six hours.

Gum-chewing increased nitrite by 25 per cent in the blood and 45 per cent in the mouth.

 After just one session of gum-chewing, the participants’ blood pressure dropped by an average of about two per cent of a healthy reading.

‘We are certainly not suggesting that people should start chewing sugary gum regularly,’ says Dr Charlotte Mills, from the University of Reading. 

‘Frequent sugar consumption is harmful for dental health and is also detrimental to cardiometabolic health when consumed in excess’.

However the research team do believe the findings could be used to improve patient care in the future.

‘Instead, our findings provide a proof of concept that we may be able to improve how the body processes dietary nitrate,’ says Dr Mills. ‘And future research should focus on developing tooth-friendly, metabolically sound approaches that achieve the same effect’.

‘The challenge now is to identify alternative strategies that are both effective and appropriate for long-term use.’