Good nitrate, bad nitrate

As you probably have heard, tap water in Gore has been running just above the regulatory maximum of 11.3mg/L of nitrate. Nitrate in high enough doses converts hemoglobin to an inactive form, and babies are more susceptible. There are other risks, but they are more speculative according to the CDC. The risk should be pretty low when the concentration is just above the regulatory limit — that’s the point of regulatory limits — and it’s mostly for babies and pregnant women. Still: not ideal, and  you don’t want to let water standards start to slip.

That first link, though, is from 1News.  A couple of months ago they ran a story headed Seven things to eat or avoid to lower your blood pressure. Number 2 on the list is beetroot, based on its high nitrate content. Yes, the same nitrate that’s in the water in Gore. Beetroot juice contains quite a lot more nitrate. A research paper on sports supplements suggests the effective dose would be about 5 mmol per serving, which translates to a bit more than 300 mg, or more than 25 litres of Gore tapwater.

Obviously there’s difference between sports nerds deliberately drinking beetroot for the nitrates and nitrates turning up as an unwanted contaminant for young and old.  The risks are different, and consent matters. Still, it’s a recurrent irritation that the “nitrates good in massive doses” and “nitrates bad even in small doses” stories don’t get cross-referenced a bit more in the media, and we don’t have a more quantitative approach to the risk.  If we’re supposed to believe it’s actually risky to brush your teeth with water that’s 1% above the regulatory limit, the limit is in the wrong place.