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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Chris, would you rather eat food with nitrates from highly nutrient dense vegetables with antioxidants or a manufactured chemical? I know there is a difference in the way the human body sees them. People don’t seem to react to vegetables with nitrates in them, but DO react to chemical nitrates. I would love to see a good study done looking into this, but maybe only our Maker will ever know the answer to this question…
Our own body produces Nitrites our saliva is swimming in them. Green vegetables are chocked full , beets are one of the big offenders. Nitrites are converted to nitric oxide a powerful vasodilator lowers blood pressure,increase athletic performance,increased blood flow to all the organs, Nitric oxide (NO) has anti-inflammatory activity as well inhibits blood clot formation. Dr. Nathan S. Bryan professor Molecular Medicine who has studied and compiled much information on health benefits of NO formation from dietary Nitrate/Nitrite content foods. Looks like they are unavoidable if you eat a healthy diet.
nitrites that occur in your saliva come from… wait for it… nitrites absorbed in your upper GI tract. You eat it, you excrete it. Direct correlation.
nitrites trigger migraine headaches for myself and others, so it is necessary to have nitrite free products available to those of us with food allergies.
Most food “allergies” are either just sensitivities or all in your head! When I was in grammar school, there was absolutely NO ONE in my entire class (almost 100 students) with a food allergy. Now everyone has allergies?? And you want to blame everything for it, from vaccines to food processing techniques! Ridiculous! Just eat and stop worrying and fussing over everything.
ajjam — how long ago were you in grammar school?
I used to think the same way until I got a head ache every time we ate at a Chinese restaurant. Soon I came to the conclusion that I can not tolerate MSG. I get very sick from it, even if I don’t know it’s in a food I have eaten.
Really, tell that to the parents who lost their daughter last year after she took one bite of a rice crispie treat that had peanut butter in it.
I support PETA. People Eating Tasty Animals. Pork rules. Yummy in my tummy!
Beware of swine flu in ur tummy!!!
Swine flu doesn’t survive being fried in hot oil. Too bad they don’t even teach basic food science in those madrasahs of yours, only disinformation and hate.
How about the smoking process, we have heard a lot on the news recently about the carcinogens in smoked ham, salami and salmon.
smoke and char are not the same. A gentle smoke made without flame adds flavor. A char adds carcinogens.
Not 1 comment about ractopamine. Banned in EU and China among other countries.
Chris: where is the scientific evidence behind your claims? Please see the study below form my colleague at Harvard and there are so many other studies showing the detriment of nitrate and nitrite.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/red-meat-consumption-linked-to-increased-risk-of-total-cardiovascular-and-cancer-mortality/
Rania – have you taken the time to read your colleague’s study? I can’t believe anyone would draw those conclusions. They completely ignored other factors like daily exercise and smoking! Just take two seconds to look at “Table 1” and you will wonder who paid those doctors to come to those conclusions. Harvard should be embarrassed to have its name on that thing.
Table 1 does include lines for smoking status and physical activity and if you take a look at the Methods section (http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1134845#METHODS) under Statistical Analysis you will see that they did control for these factors among many others:
“In multivariate analysis, we simultaneously controlled for intakes of total energy, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables (all in quintiles) and for other potential nondietary confounding variables with updated information at each 2- or 4-year questionnaire cycle. These variables included age; body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) (<23.0, 23.0-24.9, 25.0-29.9, 30.0-34.9, or ≥35.0); race (white or nonwhite); smoking status (never, past, or current [1-14, 15-24, or ≥25 cigarettes per day]); alcohol intake (0, 0.1-4.9, 5.0-14.9, or ≥15.0 g/d in women; 0, 0.1-4.9, 5.0-29.9, or ≥30.0 g/d in men); physical activity level (<3.0, 3.0-8.9, 9.0-17.9, 18.0-26.9, or ≥27.0 hours of metabolic equivalent tasks per week); "
The Harvard study told the truth. American grain-fed beef does cause those problems. Read this article (http://www.michaelmooney.net/HarvardSaysEatRedMeatandDie.html) to see why the opposite (improved cardiovascular health, lower cancer risk, longer lifespan) happens when fully grass-fed, pasture-raised beef is eaten.
Note that 95% of American beef is grain-fed, so the Harvard study was weighted towards grain-fed beef.
The countries with lower CVD, etc… generally raise their cattle in pasture, eating their natural diet, which completely alters the biochemical implications of consumption.
And yes, the Harvard study showed more deleterious effects with consumption of processed meats, which might be because of numerous factors, including nitrates/nitrates.
I think this article is now old – there was a recent Horizon program (UK BBC August 2014) that delved into the research. The key parts were that Nitrosamines are produced in the cooking process (from the nitrites) – so frying the bacon for example. They are also produced in acid conditions such as the stomach – on the production of Nitrosamines it did say Vitamin C kills the reaction in the stomach but for cooked bacon its probably too late (I’m not an expert) but a cold Frankfurter is probably ok with a glass of orange juice! To be honest it has put me off this particular food group (processed meats) and until I understand more I think moderation or better avoid is probably good advice.
There is much controversy about eating bacon. I believe that moderate consumption is an alternative for those who are skeptical.
One of my children becomes violently ill after eating conventional meat products. “Nitrate free” don’t cause the same reaction. “Scientific studies” aside, I will stick with the ones that don’t make her sick.
What kind of reaction does your child have? My granddaughter is having a sudden severe pain in her right jaw and within minutes excessive vomiting. After the attack she is completely exhausted and sleeps for hours. Wakes up completely normal. This has happened about 8 to 10 times this past year. Her pediatrician thinks they are abdominal migraines and was sent to a neurologist. Had an MRI and came back normal (thank God) but still don’t have much of an answer. Want to give her daily medication, but would like to find the cause first. Maybe nitrates.
een to a neurologist
I had no clue about the bru-ha-ha of Nitrates/Nitrites. I have to avoid them because of migraines. I LOVE bacon, but the only bacon I can eat is uncured bacon. I have noticed that certain fruits and veggies also trigger migraines. I am now going to check out their nitrate content. T
Nitrates and nitrites have been proven to set off migraines in people. Anyone that is susceptible avoids or limits their intake through processed meats. Nitrates are still not a benign as you are trying to make them seem.
Yes. Nitrates and Nitrites are found in other foods as well. And by themselves are not harmful and may even be helpful. But what happens when they are cooked in the presence of meat?
-food containing high amounts of proteins? I believe they form compounds called nitrosamines which are in fact pretty bad for you.
And you are a nitrate-nitrite pusher because . . . ?
Hes not trying to push them, hes trying to demystify them.
Actually, I did find a credible pubmed reference to the reduction of hypertension due to nitrates and nitrites. So, I retract my previous statement regarding illegitimate source, but i think you’re still downplaying the carcinogenic risk.
Your research is incomplete, and I am highly suspect of your intentions. Your “citations” link to other blogs that link to other blogs that link to other blogs. I have yet to find one credible source you cited. Additionally, you didn’t address the issue of nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are the result of your body’s metabolic processing of nitrites. Nitrosamines are proven by toxicology studies to be highly carcinogenic. While you’re correct in that nitrites aren’t the culprit, you fail to mention the things your body turns it into ARE. However, I will give you a pass here because it is also well documented that a regular intake of vitamin C before the ingestion of nitrites, like sodium or potassium nitrite, will interrupt and prevent your body from forming nitrosamines. So, drink OJ with your bacon and it’ll go a long way to mitigate risk.
It’s very helpful, thank you very much!
Yes, Ataraxia, if the salad dressing is made with balsamic vinegar!
Sorry, I haven’t read the entire feed but has anyone mentioned that the sodium nitrates in processed meats can cause the increase of blood ammonia levels when someone has a compromised liver? The blood ammonia can cause all kinds of issues including stroke, confusion, severe sleepiness, and a feeling of cold. The only way to eliminate the blood ammonia is to take massive doses of Lactulose which enables the digestive system to pass the blood ammonia.