Tongue Bugs

http://discovermagazine.com/1995/oct/tonguebugs581/?searchterm=tongue%20bugs

Summary:
A lot of bacteria are in our mouth especially, on the back of the tongue. The bacteria converts food-derived nitrate in saliva into a chemical that kills harmful germs in the stomach. Processed meats that have been treated with nitrate as preservatives and have formed nitrosamines as a result. We take lots of nitrate from in the green leafy vegetables so nitrosamines take place in our bodies. Nigel Benjamin discovered that 25% of nitrate makes its way back to cells in the mouth. The cells are secreted in the saliva, and the saliva is converted into nitrate. The nitrate that is made mixes up with the food we eat. The nitrate becomes acidified when it is mixed with the food, and it generates a lot of nitric oxide. The nitric oxide kills all the germs we eat with food. In this hypothesis's test, if salivary nitrite is put in acid, it will be convert to E. coli-killing nitric oxide. A lot of bacteria exist on back of the tongue and near the throat. When the nitrite is swallowed, it mixes with acid in the stomach and turns into nitrate oxide which kills germs in the stomach. Organisms on the tongue are used in a symbiotic relationship to kill organisms in the stomach. The tongue bugs help protect against bacterium such as the Helicobacter pylori. This bacterium has been identified as a cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer.

Opinion:
This article gave me many information about the bacteria: where they live and what they do. I didn't know that the lots of bacteria exist in humen's mouth, especially tongue and I thought the bacteria is the only bad thing before I read this article. I think the green vegetables are good for our bodies because of the nitrate so we have to eat more green vegetables!