Processed foods...

Snake Pliisken

So with this news that Bacon increases your chances of getting pancreatic cancer, its finally forced me into looking at how much processed food I eat. Which is quite a bit- I was talking with a friend today(who knows about this stuff) who told me that it's more to do with the curing process than anything else and the nitrates that are used, when it comes to meat.

Are there fish fingers/processed chicken out there that dont contain all that cancer causing crap? When I'm at home for lunch it's just so quick and easy to stick them on.

What irish brands for meats dont contain these nitrates?

I've been thinking of reducing the amount of meat I eat anyway, this is just one more occasion on the way to that tipping point.

Snake Pliisken

And obviously butcher>'brands', but Im asking about processed food here.

moonage

I would only eat bacon that had nitrates, as I don't fancy getting botulism.

EileenG

You know, a thin piece of steak or chop is just as quick to stick on as bacon etc. And no processing.

deegs

Nitrates and nitrites react at high temp and can form cancerous ties with types of protein, namely meat. Some argue that eating other antioxidants (espcially vitamin c) will lower this possibility.
Nitrates are not good, and they give meat that manky pink colour, but they are not quite bad per se... they naturally occur in foods, even vegtables and water.

So how can something naturally occuring be bad for you??

Well, its when its forced into something unnatural... natural foods have a way of balancing the good with the bad and when you go for processed foods... well... they are made to balance taste with cost... not good and bad... so you end up eating junk.

If you can avoid as much processed foods as you can, to start out try to eat foods you can identify. We can all identify an apple, but a saussage roll does not look much like a pig? But if you have to eat processed foods, look for ones with 5 or less ingredients (or any upper limit you like), anything else, don't even consider.

Not sure if it answers your questions...

Incidentially, I make all my own cured products, bacon is perhaps the easiest to make, followed by sausauges and they taste better knowing you made them yourself... only they dont have that manky pink color!!