Nitrite

slowburner

The subject of nitrite in processed meats has been touched upon briefly in this forum previously, albeit lightly.
I believe its purpose is to make the meat absorb more water and sulphates/sulphides but I could be wrong.

I have heard mention that this chemical or compound has been linked to a 30% increase in the risk of bowel cancer - is this true? And if it is, are there nitrite free meats available - I have yet to see ham, salami, chorizo or any other sliced meat without it. And that's where you have the luxury of a label. Butchers' rashers and bacon products probably contain it and they have no obligation to list the ingredients.

El_Dangeroso

The amount of nitrate in processed meat is negligible compared to the amount in vegetables like spinach. So I don't think it's that. Plus vitamin C is added to bacon which inhibits the conversion from nitrate to nitrousamines, the carcinogenic compound that's supposed to be the root of the problem.

But there still remains a link b/w processed meat and cancer alright. Could be that processsed meat is generally eaten in conjunction with less-than-great diets which statistics can never really fully account for. Could be large amounts of sodium, it's hard to say. We do know that when fridges became widespread the rates of gastric cancer plummeted people could eat less pickled and cured food and more fresh food.

My advice would be to eat mostly fresh meat and fish and when indulging in cured meat make it high-end products like parma ham or organic free range bacon.

slowburner

Is there a difference between nitrate and nitrite? I thought the latter had been singled out as the baddie.

El_Dangeroso

Good overview here:

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-banning-hotdogs-and-bacon-make.html

slowburner

That's an interesting article.

This struck me as a bit odd though

And nitrates aren’t present at all in commercially processed meats.

The article had a strong American bent to it, would the same hold true in this part of the world, I wonder?

Since 1974, the use of potassium nitrate and even sodium nitrate has been barred in commercially cured meats like hotdogs and pumped bacon by the USDA, as a precautionary reaction to that earlier scare; and only scant amounts of sodium nitrite are allowed since 1978, a mere 120 parts per million.

slowburner

This abstract from 1999 seems to have found a significant association between nitrates, nitrites and nitrosodimethylamine and cancers of the gastro-intestinal tract.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10074917

El_Dangeroso

slowburner wrote: »

This abstract from 1999 seems to have found a significant association between nitrates, nitrites and nitrosodimethylamine and cancers of the gastro-intestinal tract.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10074917

Havenae read the full text of that but if that association holds true then spinach would be far more implicated considering it has exponential amounts of nitrate than bacon and I find that hard to believe.

slowburner

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Havenae read the full text of that but if that association holds true then spinach would be far more implicated considering it has exponential amounts of nitrate than bacon and I find that hard to believe.

I am seriously confused by all this.
But I guess you would have to ask who pays for whatever research comes up with whatever conclusions.

El_Dangeroso

slowburner wrote: »

I am seriously confused by all this.
But I guess you would have to ask who pays for whatever research comes up with whatever conclusions.

I wouldn't say that paper you posted was dishonest in any way, but I'd like to see the questionnaires that measured the amount of n- in the diet. Bet they forgot about leafy green vegetables.

slowburner

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

I wouldn't say that paper you posted was dishonest in any way, but I'd like to see the questionnaires that measured the amount of n- in the diet. Bet they forgot about leafy green vegetables.

In all honesty, all I read in that link was the abstract.
I presume methodology would have to be transparant (peer review etc.) and would be described further into the paper.

El_Dangeroso

Ooh, free full text:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0215(19990315)80:6%3C852::AID-IJC9%3E3.0.CO;2-S/pdf

Interesting, there was a sig association of increase in smoked and salted fish but not cured meats, I wonder if that could be due to oxidised omega 3 or the fact that Fins eat a lot of salted fish? If you don't have enough people doing something it's very hard to find an association. Also beer is a big source of nitrates!

I'm very tired but I can't see whether they included veg nitrates in their analysis, I'm gonna guess no. Based on other research it seems that nitrate could be beneficial.

El_Dangeroso

Evidence of nitrates (in vegetables) being beneficial:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/215552.php

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19439460

slowburner

My head hurts.

howtomake

slowburner wrote: »

My head hurts.

That'll be from all the nitrate or possibly the nitrite:p