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The Good Bugs on Our Tongues

They live on our tongues, millions of them, And it's a good thing too, Without these friendly
bacteria, we might be more vulnerable to some very nasty bugs. LANrs Us!~ rr T() MAKf~ PRan~I~S, Vegetarians eat plenty of It, Salami is preserved in it, rrhe compound in question is nitrate, and ever since the 1970sit has bccn seen as a dietary evil. Nitrate-contaminated well water has been linked to rare cases of oxygen-starved blue babies, while nitrosamines-nitratc compounds fonncd BY JOSIE GLAUSIUSZ ~O1lgtles of fi-cshly killed r:\ts, sliced tl1em Into front and rear ~ectlon~, and then ground each in ~alt water. rl'hcy tllen put the homogenized tonbrucsin petri dishes and harvested the bactcria tllat bebran to multiply. They found that while the front sections of tl1e tongtles housed few bactcria, the hcavil}' pitted back halves ~upportcd a thriving population of Stllphylococc11.\. ,l'cill1'i, rrhese microorgani~m~ grab oxygen ~rom nitratc-a compound formed fi-om onc atom ofnitrogen and thrcc o~'oxygcn-and use it to digest carbohydrates. In tllC process they form nitrite, which has only two oxygen atoms, Lcif:crt and Dllncan think tllat when nitrite is swallowed, it rcact~ Witll stomach acid to form nitric oxide, a g:\Sletl1al to many bactcria,Altllough it might secm that tile hydrochloric acid in rats' stomachs-and in ours-might bc sufficient to kill any bug that cntcrs, t)le two rcsearchers havc shown that this simply is not so. When food enters the stomach, it~ acidity decreases for up to two hours, and many bacteria-from E, coli 0157:1-17 to SIllm011cllll-can survive this weakened acid onslaught and tJ'avel farther into the intestine, where they multiply and callSC gastroenteritis, Bllt when Leifcrt anJ Dlmcan aJJcd nitrite to varying concentrations of hyJrochloric acid in a test tube, tlley found that the compounds produced killed off SIl11110ncllll, Shigella, and E, coli 0157 :1-17 , all of which survive immersion
t lat t lC mtrate-consummg

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tratcs,.when ~)ro,ken down by symbiotic bacteriathat live m our moutlls, may protect us again~t potenti:\lly murderou~ bugs, such as ,S'lumonclln,Shigcllll, and Eschcrichin coli 0157:1-17,the bacterium that sickened thousands of]apanese schoolchildren last year. Lci~"crthasbccn su~picious of tIle purported ill effects of nitratcs for ~omc time. Although the link between blue-baby ~yndrome and nitrates in drinking water has bcen well establishcd-bacteria in well water convert nitrate into lutritc, which intcr~"cres Witll tIle ability of the baby's bloodstream to ferry oxygen-there is no evidence that such tainted water posesa hazard to infants more than three months in age or to childrcn and adults. Alld whilc nitrosamines have been shown to incrca~c tile ri~k of stomach c,1ncer, stuJies have fJiled to show tllat nitl";lt~ on tllcir own arc carcinogenic. Qllite the reverse, in fact: most dietary nitrate~-80 to 90 percent--come from vcgetables, particularly green, leafy ones; ~ome ~tllJies havc shown thatvegctari:ilL"havelower than aver:\ge

H I f Ib ' k I k epuactcrlapactlcpOCS t ' t d . . In ra s ongues-an In ours, during the digestion of some meatshavc been implicatcd asa causeof stomach cancer, But according to microbiologists Carlo Lcifert and Callum Duncan of tl1C University of Abcrdcenin Scotland,ni-

Jc:lth ratc~(rom cancer. Al f n( I nitrate IS so tOXIC, ' L el fcrt antI ]) uncan

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in hYllrochloricacid,Thu~ they hclicve I I . . b ' acterla on rats , tongues I1C Ip t I1elr . I10Sts(cstroy i

wondered, why is it a componcnt o~'ollr saliva?Could it bc that nitrate ha~ some beneficial effect? Now their cxpcrimcnt~ have shown that bacteria living in pit~ at the back of rats' tongues convert ni tra te into ni tri tc,

pathogenic bacteria,Thc relationship bctwccnl";\t and bug secmsto be synlbiotic: rats, saysLei~"crt,intllse the saliva-filled pit~ with calcillm carbonate, which prevents these watery wells ~rom becoming acidic and killing the bacteria,

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which, when swallowcd, reacts with Many of thc bacteriain our mouths trateshavcreceived too much badpress, stomachacid to forln a potent antimi- arc not sobeneficial. rIlle acidstheyproModerateamounts arc not dangcrous to crobialagentthat kills pathogenic bacte- duce dissolve tooth enamel. Leifcrt

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ad~lts, the rcscarchcrs say. Morcover, ria thatinfiltratetIleintcstinc~,

Lelfert and Duncan have found that nit~; PISI:I'\"'~M

thinksthat nitrite-prodllcing bacteria,

which hc has also follnd living in the
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mouths of humans, pigs, pigeons, rabbits, and goats, may playa defensive role against bacteria that cause tooth decay. These bacteria are resistant to tlleir own acids, but an acid-nitrite combination kills them. More evidence that the nitrite-producing bacteria may protect againsttooth decay and stomach cancer may come from a study that Leifert is working on with Hong Li, of Yunnan Normal University in China. They are studying the rl!ral Yi, Bai, and Tai peoples living in Yumlan, a province near Laos, who suffer almost no tooth decay or stomach cancer.Their diet consistsalmost entirely of vegetables,many cured in nitrite, and small amounts of preserved ll1eats. Leifert and Li plan to compare the healtll of tlle rural populace Witll that of urban Yi, Bai, and Tai to find what effect a change of diet has on the incidence of disease.It may be, saysLeifert, that ninoites in tlleir diet ll1ayeven protect tIlell1 againstHclicobactcrpylori, the bacterium that has been linked to bOtIl stoll1ach ulcers and stomach cancer. Just recently Leifert has founa tIlat a combination of nitrite, hydrochloric acid, and vitamin C can rapidly kill the fungus tIlat causes oral candidiasis, which in many pcople with

AIDS is antibiotic-resistant anda chronic

If you'dliketo knowmoreabolJt howwe makewhiskey hereInTennessee, dropus a line

probl~m. ,

Lelfcrt ISnot tI1Conly rcsearcher to

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have detected anantibacterial effect from

nitrites in saliva. A teall1 of medical re-

Jack Daniel's

Tennessee Whiskey

searchers led by Nigel Benjamin of St. Bartholomew's Hospitalin Londonrecently tested the ~10tion ~hat li~kil~g

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wounds m;lY helpkIll bacteria. Benjamm

At our distille1Yin the Tennessee hills, we

asked 14 healtllY volunteers tolickboth burn ncks of hard maple until they become h 1 Th . kl h. sidesof tlleir hands and tOW10 tllat nin"ic oxide levels inthe skin shot up dramati- C arcoa. en we rnc e our w 1S key, drap
ca!ly. He suspectstl~a~ so!ncth~nl? on.tIle skin helps convert IUn1te I11to l1ltnc OXidc.. time to reassess thecffects of nitrates on

by drop' throu gh that charcoalto mellow . ,

While Leifcrtand Duncan believe it's 1tS flavor. Some folks call Jack Darnel s b " but t heo. U S Government b our healtll, they don't dismiss tllC hazards a our on, posed ~y,water"co,~taminatcd byhi.gh says our charcoal mellowin g makesus a levels of IUn"atcfertilIzers. Such pollution ( .",. can trigger thegrowth of toxicalgal (Tennessee Whiskey. If you re lookmg d~~ . b 1., bloomsandsubsequent fish kills. But r
theywouldliketo change theperception
tIlat run.atesin vegettbl~ are bad. ,. At tIle moment, people arc tryll1g to m;tke lower and lower limits for vegetable nitrate conccntration," says Lcifcrt. "And with respect to human consull1ption, I would think that tllere's a rethinking that's going to happen." ~

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T H SIP PIN'

T EN N ESS E E W H SK EY
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Yi'ltr fri1:I"L, al]!Jk Danicl'" rcmil1d YC)II ludril1k rcspcll1,ilny,
Tcnncsscc Whiskey

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40,43% alcohol by volume (80-86 proof)

Distillcd and Bottled by

Jack Daniel Distillery, Lem Motiow, Proprietor, Routc I, Lynchburg (Pop 361),Tennesscc 37352

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