I wonder why the conversation is all about avoiding nitrates and nitrites in bacon and never about avoiding celery, beets, radishes, chard, lettuce, spinach, etc. which contain far higher amounts.
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After all, nitrate is naturally present in many green vegetables, including celery and spinach, something that bacon manufacturers often jubilantly point out. As one British bacon-maker told me, “There’s nitrate in lettuce and no one is telling us not to eat that!”
But something different happens when nitrates are used in meat processing. When nitrates interact with certain components in red meat (haem iron, amines and amides), they form N-nitroso compounds, which cause cancer. The best known of these compounds is nitrosamine.
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Yeah, I've only heard about nitrates in the context of red beet juice for long distance races. When trying to search about the merits of it, I was always confused about it being so heavily touted as both bad and good, but this explains it.
I remember reading that in the late 1950's the FDA limited the amount of nitrites in meat. And also required adding ascorbic acid. The idea is that when you cook meat treated with nitrites the ascorbic acid destroys the nitrite before they have a chance to form nitrosamines.
Might be that nitrites in uncooked vegies is fine.
" After all, nitrate is naturally present in many green vegetables, including celery and spinach, something that bacon manufacturers often jubilantly point out. As one British bacon-maker told me, “There’s nitrate in lettuce and no one is telling us not to eat that!”
But something different happens when nitrates are used in meat processing. When nitrates interact with certain components in red meat (haem iron, amines and amides), they form N-nitroso compounds, which cause cancer. The best known of these compounds is nitrosamine. "