Beyond just being loaded with “artery-clogging saturated fat” and sodium, bacon has been long considered unhealthy due to the use of nitrates and nitrites in the curing process. Many conventional doctors, and well-meaning friends and relatives, will say you’re basically asking for a heart attack or cancer by eating the food many Paleo enthusiasts lovingly refer to as “meat candy”.
The belief that nitrates and nitrates cause serious health problems has been entrenched in popular consciousness and media. Watch this video clip to see Steven Colbert explain how the coming bacon shortage will prolong our lives thanks to reduced nitrates in our diets.
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In fact, the study that originally connected nitrates with cancer risk and caused the scare in the first place has since been discredited after being subjected to a peer review. There have been major reviews of the scientific literature that found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or even evidence to suggest that they may be carcinogenic. Further, recent research suggests that nitrates and nitrites may not only be harmless, they may be beneficial, especially for immunity and heart health. Confused yet? Let’s explore this issue further.
Find out why you shouldn’t be concerned about nitrates & nitrites in bacon.
Where Does Nitrate/Nitrite Exposure Come From?
It may surprise you to learn that the vast majority of nitrate/nitrite exposure comes not from food, but from endogenous sources within the body. (1)
When it comes to food, vegetables are the primary source of nitrites. On average, about 93% of nitrites we get from food come from vegetables. It may shock you to learn that one serving of arugula, two servings of butter lettuce, and four servings of celery or beets all have more nitrite than 467 hot dogs. (2) And your own saliva has more nitrites than all of them! So before you eliminate cured meats from your diet, you might want to address your celery intake. And try not to swallow so frequently.
All humor aside, there’s no reason to fear nitrites in your food, or saliva. Recent evidence suggests that nitrites are beneficial for immune and cardiovascular function; they are being studied as a potential treatment for hypertension, heart attacks, sickle cell and circulatory disorders. Even if nitrites were harmful, cured meats are not a significant source, as the USDA only allows 120 parts per million in hot dogs and bacon. Also, during the curing process, most of the nitrite forms nitric oxide, which binds to iron and gives hot dogs and bacon their characteristic pink color. Afterwards, the amount of nitrite left is only about 10 parts per million.
And if you think you can avoid nitrates and nitrites by eating so-called “nitrite- and nitrate-free” hot dogs and bacon, don’t be fooled. These products use “natural” sources of the same chemical like celery and beet juice and sea salt, and are no more free from nitrates and nitrites than standard cured meats. In fact, they may even contain more nitrates and nitrites when cured using “natural” preservatives.
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What Happens When You Eat Nitrates and Nitrites
It’s important to understand that neither nitrate nor nitrite accumulate in body. Ingested nitrate from food is converted into nitrite when it contacts our saliva, and of the nitrate we eat, 25% is converted into salivary nitrite, 20% converted into nitrite, and the rest is excreted in the urine within 5 hours of ingestion. (3) Any nitrate that is absorbed has a very short half-life, disappearing from our blood in under five minutes. (4) Some nitrite in our stomach reacts with gastric contents, forming nitric oxide which may have many beneficial effects. (5, 6) You can listen to my podcast “Does Red Meat Increase Your Risk of Death?” for more information on this topic.
In general, the bulk of the science suggests that nitrates and nitrites are not problematic and may even be beneficial to health. Critical reviews of the original evidence suggesting that nitrates/nitrites are carcinogenic reveals that in the absence of co-administration of a carcinogenic nitrosamine precursor, there is no evidence for carcinogenesis. (7) Newly published prospective studies show no association between estimated intake of nitrite and nitrite in the diet and stomach cancer. (8) Nitric oxide, formed by nitrite, has been shown to have vasodilator properties and may modulate platelet function in the human body, improving blood pressure and reducing heart attack risk. (9, 10, 11) Nitrates may also help boost the immune system and protect against pathogenic bacteria (12, 13, 14)
So what do we take from this? There’s no reason to fear nitrates and nitrites in food. No reason to buy nitrate-free, uncured bacon. No reason to strictly avoid cured meats, particularly those from high quality sources (though it may make sense to limit consumption of them for other reasons). In fact, because of concerns about trichinosis from pork, it makes a lot more sense in my opinion to buy cured bacon and other pork products. I do.
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Hello Everyone,
Is there a difference between how nitrites from within a whole food complex, like celery, affect the body versus isolated nitrites (from a synthetic or natural source) added to cured meats?
Also, is there a difference between nitrites from a whole food and nitrites created in a laboratory (a slight twist from the previous question)? Sometimes, synthetic substances can have a deleterious effect on the body when compared to its natural counterpart. Examples include folic acid vs. folate, synthetic beta-carotene vs. natural beta-carotene, ferrous fumarate and ferrous sulfate vs. natural iron, and synthetic vitamin E (d, l alpha-tocopherol) vs. natural vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol and other tocopherols, as well as tocotrienols).
Blessings,
Andrew
A more eloquent version of my own query!
hey, you need a better proof reader
I have a question: You mentioned the study about nitrates and nitrates was discredited by a peer review. Do you have a source for that anywhere?
I suggest looking into the primary literature a bit more before posting something like this. N-nitroso compounds have been linked to a variety of cancers whether they come from tobacco or cured/smoked meats and fish or whether they are formed exogenously or endogenously. To say they are not a risk is ridiculous. And yeas fruits and vegetables do contain nitrates and nitrites that can lead to endogenous formation and diets with high amounts of fruits vegetables and cured meats together do increase risk.
Interesting article. I suppose it gave me a bit more knowledge on the subject, assuming it wasn’t written for someone elses purposes. But I have a friend that has a reaction to Nitrates, and can’t eat foods that contain these. So bacon, and wine for example. They can take a pill to help lessen the effects, but they feel quite uncomfortable when they consume products with Nitrates. They don’t have reactions with fruit or veg that seem to naturally have these, so I wonder if there is something specific about the added Nitrates compared to those that are naturally present.
I guess they are safe for Joe Average, but certainly you can’t paint everyone with the same brush. Just like there are coeliac or people who react to gluten.
I have issues with processed meats that contain Nitrates/Nitrites, they trigger my migraines. I can however eat those natural meats or unprocessed meats with no reaction. It’s been wonderful to be able to eat bacon, hot dogs and ham again after 25 years. However now my cholesterol level is suffering…so moderation is in order!! Cudos to Hormel, Simple Truth and Oscar Meyer for using a more natural way to process pork.
sodium nitrite will form nitrosamine when contacting amines and nitrosamine is a carcinogen as concluded from lab tests
does this apply to nitrates and nitrites that are in our system due to pesticides?
I have spent 40 of my 60 years concerned about sodium nitrate in bacon, Ham etc. not quite ready to leap into joyful move into regular hot dogs etc from the newer groovier just meat frozen dogs or side pork as opposed to nitrated bacon.
I do appreciate being challenged here and about Mercury, and radiation, all long standing concerns in my life and practice.
As change comes slow I look forward to hearing about the same information from at least 2 other sources, articles
Michael Lang, ND
For me the effect is swift. Often I will feel the beginnings of a whopping migraine headache within a few minutes of consuming foods that contain nitrates or nitrites. The attention that these additives get is no joke for people who suffer from debilitating migraines. Nitrates and nitrites are horrible poisons, as far as my body is concerned, so I avoid them accordingly.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge in this subject.
Can you comment on the Wiki page on nitrosamine, regarding its link to cancer? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrosamine
I am curious to know whether the statements and citing made therein are all credible.
Thanks
cwen66
A review of this whole subject just appeared in the journal Meat Science. Despite some minor conflicts of interest noted by the authors, I cannot too strongly recommend it for a balanced view of this whole subject, written in (relatively!) plain English:
“The role of red and processed meat in colorectal cancer development: A review, based on findings from a workshop”
From the abstract:
“This paper is based on a workshop held in Oslo, November 2013, in which experts discussed how to reach consensus on the healthiness of red and processed meat.”
Section 3 is the key one:
“How do we think meat consumption is related to CRC [colorectal cancer]?”
Everyone should read it for themselves to form their own judgment about the arguments pro and con. But I would summarise the main points as follows:
– There is “no doubt” N-nitroso compounds [NOC} “have the ability to promote cancer development”
– But there is a question whether whether “direct formation of NOC occurs in the digestive system from eating nitrite and/or nitrate containing foods”
– There is a further question whether these NOC “induce carcinogenesis” [cause cancer]
– Nitrates and nitrites “could, within limits, be considered indispensable nutrients” because of certain health benefits
– But the haem iron present in red and processed meat “may catalyse the formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds in rat models” and be linked with cancer via other processes too
– However, it is known that calcium binds haem iron and enables us to excrete it. This and other similar effects of a diet properly balanced for micronutrients may reduce or eliminate the potential harm of NOCs [section 4.3 offers good dietary advice here]
The bigger danger than NOCs may therefore be a highly unbalanced diet:
“If the diet is unbalanced due to a high intake of meat, such protective mechanisms may not be sufficient to protect the colon from DNA damage caused by haem-related reactive oxygen species.”
This evidence IS, I submit, enough to rule out several of the most aggressive forms of Paleo (eg Ray Audette’s “Neanderthin”, Gary Taubes’ own personal diet).
Additionally, if you select only one sentence as the up-sum of this review, it should be this one:
“While these new discoveries concerning NO [nitrous oxide] physiology and the metabolic interrelationships among NO, nitrite and nitrate challenge the hypotheses that nitrite has significant carcinogenic effects in humans, the debate is still active.”
ie WE DON’T KNOW.
Sorry Chris: you cannot legitimately claim that one side of this debate is simply a “myth”.
In the meantime, make mine fish 3x weekly, a little red meat every week or two, and heaps and heaps of vegetables every day. Oh, and hold the bacon.
Wishing you enduring health
Ivor Goodbody
That’s a helpful post, Ivor. This issue has complexity that isn’t being appreciated.
It’s deceptive to give the impression that there are no health risks of nitrites/nitrates in meats when in fact they can combine with amines at cooking temperatures or in the acidic environment of the stomach and create nitrosamines that have been shown to be associated with cancer. Those are the precursors. The article Kresser cites (funded by the American Meat Institute Foundation) says “in absence of co-administration of a carcinogenic nitrosamine precursor”, so they are ignoring factors that have been associated with cancer. The article also only evaluated stomach cancer with respect to nitrosamines, not other cancers and diseases that other research has shown to be associated with meats that contain nitrites/nitrates. Their stomach cancer interpretation itself is debatable.
It’s faulty to associate preserved meats with healthy fresh fruits and vegetables, as if the meat is just as healthy because both have nitrites/nitrates. Unlike preserved meats, the fruits/vegetables naturally have various antioxidants which can reduce the chance of formation of nitrosamines in the body. The meat industry has tacitly acknowledged the healthiness of fruits/vegetables by adding vitamin-C to processed meat to try to reduce the cancer risks associated with processed meats.
The healthiness of fresh fruits and vegetables and their ability to reduce cancer risk is what should have been emphasized by Kresser and others, not the making of apologies for the meat industry and trying to marginalize the cancer risks associated with preserved meats.
‘This issue has complexity that isn’t being appreciated.’
Agreed!
Thank you, this is interesting. I have been bothered by some time by the advent of all the “uncured” bacon, as if that is a health food and regular bacon is bad for you, but I had also read — and you have confirmed — that the “uncured” bacon just uses celery to cure it which is the same Nitrate/nitrite chemical. So people are just paying extra to delude themselves.
I also read somewhere that in cured meat they are not allowed to use one of the two (Nitrate or nitrite – I think it was nitrite) that is considered unhealthy. But in the “uncured” meat you get a lot of that particular chemical from the “natural” curing.
Celery nitrate is not the same sorry
TC (March 1) – What do we make of the fact that Tesco sells British Unsmoked Drycure StreaKy Bacon from outdoor bred pigs: “Our outdoor bred pigs are born in the heart of the countryside, where they have plenty of room to roam. They live out in the fields until they are weaned, rooting for food or resting in their huts, before moving to spacious, straw-filled barns.” How long is it before they are weaned; how long do they live in the straw-filled barns?
Hi Chris,
I wonder if you know anything about transient side effects from something in bacon. Both my dad and I experienced a type of head rush after eating bacon on an empty stomach. I had two pieces and my dad had one and we both had a similar experience of feeling dizzy and bleary headed and a sort of blood sugar crash kind of feeling but without the typical shakes or jitters. The feeling lasted for about 30 minutes. Someone mentioned histamines as the potential culprit and another mentioned nitrates/nitrites. It was a low sodium bacon with celery juice powder, brown sugar and sea salt (and it was smoked). I may have experienced this sort of reaction to foods in the past, but without identifying what was happening. This time it was very obvious that I and my dad were suffering from the thing we had just consumed– we both ate bacon, and we both started complaining about feeling wierd.
Obviously, this goes back to ‘everything in moderation’. Regardless of whether or not the nitrites are derived from a natural (i.e., celery) source or not, it is going to be converted to nitrate via bacteria. Also, when nitrites are reacted with secondary amines present in proteins (also with the addition of heat), they are going to be reduced into nitrosamine, which is carcinogenic. So in conclusion, if you fry the bacon at a high enough temperature (which most people do), it will convert the nitrites present in the preservation to nitrosamine, thus forming a carcinogenic compound.
Reading all these varied comments from people that I have no idea what their field of expertise is, I can tell you that I now understand why doctors are never in agreement with each other and the FDA, USDA cannot come to any definite conclusion as to what is good for us and what is not. I think you just have to decide for yourself, based on the source, and the information provided, how you are going to nourish your body, or not.
here have been major reviews of the scientific literature that found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or even evidence to suggest that they may be carcinogenic. {?}
Kris – don’t make me do the research just provide the link – one page summary of the major reviews will suffice.
thanks in advance – ps make it a posting so I don’t have to read 100 comments looking for it.
apologies – CHRIS
and quotations are missing from the copied text…
“There have been major reviews of the scientific literature that found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or even evidence to suggest that they may be carcinogenic.”
(?) just looking for the referenced sources
again thanks
I found your link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22889895
and it states studies (plural) so you have that article in total that you can provide the references they cite.
Thanks again
Ingested nitrate and nitrite and stomach cancer risk: an updated review.
“Newly published prospective epidemiological cohort studies indicate that there is no association between estimated intake of nitrite and nitrate in the diet and stomach cancer. This new and growing body of evidence calls for a reconsideration of nitrite and nitrate safety.”
a little more searching and viola….
researchgate..
Ingested nitrate and nitrite and stomach cancer risk: An updated …
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/230665462_Ingested_nitrate_
i am not sure of the legality of this type of sharing but the pdf is there for the downloading
“The American Meat Institute Foundation provided support to conduct this review.”
This is not in itself enough to dismiss the study out of hand, but I think
(a) it’s worth knowing before simply taking their conclusions at face value
(b) it should prompt far keener scrutiny of their arguments and results than if their source(s) of funding had been impartial.
I also note that they do NOT rule out nitrite/ate carcinogenesis in the event of nitrosamine precursors, which – as we have exhaustively established – can occur via various types of additives, overcooking or both.
Wishing you enduring health
Ivor Goodbody (bacon-free but partial to red meat once a week, usually in the form of New Zealand lamb liver)
The difference is the nitrites found in vegetables are likely along side vitamin C which helps inhibit their conversion into nitrosamines. Also, if eaten raw they will not be cooked which is another way conversion to nitrosamines can happen. It is at it’s worse during high heat so we might do well to saute our celery at a low to med heat.
From Scientific American:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/studies-link-ddt-other-environmental-toxins-to-late-onset-alzheimers-disease/
Nitrosamines
Another possible culprit for Alzheimer’s comes from the modern American diet. Researcher Suzanne de la Monte of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School believes there is a connection between the rising number of Alzheimer’s cases and the greater amounts of nitrogen-based chemicals added to our food over the past few decades. Along with nitrogen-based fertilizers they include nitrates and nitrites, which are used to preserve, color and to flavor processed foods (as well as those added to tobacco products). In acidic environments, such as the stomach, or at high temperatures, as those reached in cooking, these compounds transform into toxic nitrosamines.
De la Monte’s study showed that nitrosamines damage cells’ energy-producing mitochondria and block insulin receptors in rats. Both of these factors, according to de la Monte, appear to cause neurological damage and encourage the development of insulin-related diseases, including diabetes, as well as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s, in animal studies. Other research in humans also points to insulin resistance as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. “All the diseases that have changed over the past forty or fifty years are related to insulin resistance and they track really nicely with changes in our food,” de la Monte says. “And nitrosamines, I tend to think they have a huge, huge role.” She is now searching for a biomarker that will allow her to measure nitrosamine exposure in people and see whether her study results translate from animals to humans.
End quote. Note particularly that nitrosamines can form either inside or outside the body. I have given reasons earlier in the thread why nitrites/trates taken in the form of vegetables may react differently than those taken from meats, particularly industrially processed meats.
Wishing you enduring health
Ivor Goodbody (bacon-free but meat about once a week, mostly in form of New Zealand lamb liver)
Here’s another one: http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/how-does-pork-prepared-in-various-ways-affect-the-blood?qh=YToyOntpOjA7czo4OiJuaXRyYXRlcyI7aToxO3M6Nzoibml0cmF0ZSI7fQ%3D%3D