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, what do you think about the latest cancer study that has been done by the World Cancer Research Fund International? https://www.wcrf.org/cancer_research/cup/recommendations.php They recommend avoiding processed meats, such as bacon, entirely. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles about this latest study going around recently, and thought it should be addressed.
Processed meats increase multiple types of colon rectal and intestinal cancers, this article is misinformed or a downright lie put forth by the pork lobby.
https://hollyleehealth.com/2013/04/02/processed-meats-declared-too-dangerous-for-human-consumption/
Yes, it’s obvious Chris Kresser is working for the pork lobby *rolls eyes*
So you are telling me it is okay to consume processed deli meats and bacon?
Really?
“The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has just completed a detailed review of more than 7,000 clinical studies covering links between diet and cancer. Its conclusion is rocking the health world with startling bluntness: Processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives.
Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually manufactured with a carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite. This is used as a color fixer by meat companies to turn packaged meats a bright red color so they look fresh. Unfortunately, sodium nitrite also results in the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines in the human body. And this leads to a sharp increase in cancer risk for those who eat them.”
I find your article to be a real boost for people to NOT pay attention to what they eat when in these days they should be paying more attention than ever. Tsk tsking additives is enough to make me wonder what your real agenda is here, Chris Kesser.
Nitrates are potentially fatal to 5% of asthmatics….
They’re a major cause of migraines, which in addition to being incredibly painful and debilitating, cause scar tissue in the brain which greatly increases the risk of stroke and thrombosis.
In 1970 they found that if you take nitrosamines and inject them into the blood stream they’re carcinogenic then they assumed that this happened in our stomachs without testing it. When finally tested in 2010 they found that the nitrites and nitrates are converted into rather potent vasodilator. Nitrites lower blood pressure and that’s it.
https://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/56/2/274.short
My complaint is that the present article is cherry-picked, and it is disingenuous to call bacon a “health food”. More studies:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23169285
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22674227
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23350350
People keep forwarding this article, asking me if it’s true. Well, only if you cherry-pick the data:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20545968
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19363256
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20387270
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19542621
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20387270
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20034403
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20302640
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21430112
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16865769
Salted food regardless of how it is preserved is not meant for regular consumption. Traditionally it is consumed only during the winter months, but fresh food (or fresh-frozen) is always best.
All of those studies involve the injection of nitrosamine directly into the blood stream or absorbed through the lungs and skin. You can’t assume that just because nitrosamine is carcinogenic that it’s being created in the stomach. This study shows that nitrites are converted into nitric oxide in the stomach which simply acts as a vasodilator.
https://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/56/2/274.short
ALL of the those studies Ken. Really? Did you read more than one or two? I suggest you go through them again a little more carefully.
Absorbed through the skin & lungs https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20545968
Predates the study about nitrites actually in food. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19363256
Rat pups exposed through injection https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20387270
Treatment of cultured rat neurons, exposed directly through absorption. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19542621
Repeat on your list. Rat pups exposed through injection https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20387270
Rat pups exposed through injection https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20034403
Rat pups exposed through injection https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20302640
I missed this two
“In this large prospective study of dietary NOCs in relation to cancer risk, we showed that gastrointestinal cancer incidence was associated with dietary NDMA but not with ENOC and nitrite”. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21430112
This one did find a correlation using extremely limited data and without adjusting for vitamin C intake, smoking habits, or H pylori infection https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16865769
So what you have posted is six irreverent studies and two conflicting studies.
Correction, 5 irrelevant studies, 2 conflicting studies, 1 repeat, and 1 that can’t be checked without buying it (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19363256).
Chris, thank you. As a Nutritionist, my eating habits are on a constant pedestal, and bacon is the one food I am forever explaining myself for. Now, I can stay silent and simply direct the critics to your article. Once again, dispelling the myths. Keep up the great work. Steph, The Natural Nutritionist.
You’re really easy to convince. If Kresser had taken the opposite stance, would you immediately believe that too?
Correction: For fear of garbling the results, I’d do better to quote the authors’ own words in the study above as a more accurate statement about the “Bottom Line”:
“The difference in telomere length (T/S ratio) between the highest and lowest quartiles of processed meat intake (0.017) corresponds to a 3.4-y age difference.”
Wishing you enduring health
Ivor
Of 12 food groups in this study, only processed meat was significantly associated with telomere length, a marker of biological aging:
Dietary patterns, food groups, and telomere length in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
https://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/88/5/1405.long
Bottom Line: Authors say processed meat (including “sausage, chorizo, scrapple and bacon”) added 3.4 yrs to subjects in study, as measured by telomere length.
Hypothesis as to why: “Constituents of processed meat that may accelerate the aging process include saturated fat, sodium, nitrates and nitrites, cholesterol, and iron (55).”
[Ref 55= Linseisen J, Rohrmann S, Norat T, et al. Dietary intake of different types and characteristics of processed meat which might be associated with cancer risk–results from the 24-hour diet recalls in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Public Health Nutr 2006;9:449–64. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16870017?dopt=Abstract%5D
Getout clause for diehard arvinophiles: “[I]t is possible that the statistically significant association we observed between processed meat intake and telomere length was a result of chance”
Better hope so, I guess…
Wishing you enduring health
Ivor
Chris, I’ve read as much as I could today (just found this). My 8 yr old son may have Tourette Syndrome and OCD. I was told U.S. sea salt contains MSG, an excitotoxin. Is there any definitive way to know for sure if either Applegate Turkey Bacon and/or their Sunday Bacon’s sea salt is the one which contains MSG? I simply must know. A high protein diet is good for him, as he also has ADHD. Thank you so very much for you reply ahead of time :-).
What about sodium phosphate and sodium erythorbate? Are they bad? (I looked up on wikipedia but didn’t find too much information. They don’t seem bad there.) One popular local farm here (Toronto) use those in their pork belly bacon.
Hah! Carolyn, your post resonates strongly with me today. Funny!
The 3.5 years on a low carb high fat diet were not fun but were relatively stress free because I just”knew” I was doing the best possible diet for my health and any symptoms were dismissed as “detox”, so I endured all that for the eventual radiant health I was promised.
Four months after adding carbs back in I am wondering if all that low carb dieting damaged my thyroid /adrenals as weight gain is rapid and body temp too low. I wish I could feel at ease with my dietary choices, confident that I am doing the right kind of diet and supps for health and longevity, but there is so much contradictory info out there I am not sure what the heck to eat and drink. GRR!
I am finding myself in the same circumstances as you, Vicki and Carolyn. My husband and I were on a low carb diet for a time and I also dismissed complicating symptoms as detox – or at least tried to. The more I read, the more I realized we were jeopardizing our adrenals/thyroid. We were taking many vitamin and mineral supplements and now read that superfoods are where we will get what we need – not supplements. We have changed our whole way of eating, but the more I research, the more I hear that our current choices are wrong, too! Now the conflicting info on meat, and in this article, specifically bacon! We also had given that up – almost – for good! And even reading through these posts, I find comments and links saying even fresh and/or fermented vegetables are carcinogenic????? Well, I don’t even want to go there! I just started on fermented foods because of compelling evidence for it! As far as bacon, there is too much compelling evidence against synthetic nitrates/nitrites and very little convincing arguments for it. Just because “it is so good” does not mean it is good for you. Without any responses that really answer the many really good questions that different ones legitimately asked, I am left to conclude that the debate for bacon with nitrates/nitrites, whether synthetic or natural, is really based on the fact that it is what bacon-lovers want to hear so that they can just keep on eating it without feeling guilty. I really like bacon, too; but I for one am tired of being sick and choose instead to choose a little more wisely than just eating what I like. We are working towards becoming totally organic, GMO-free, grassfed, pastured, wood-lot, or whatever you want to call it. It’s unfortunately very expensive, but so is ongoing medical bills and loss of time from poor health. I don’t know what all the right answers are, but I certainly believe that God-made real food is a no-brainer and man-made pleasure foods, like “bacon candy” are also “no-brainers”. As for eating more proteins and less of everything else, that isn’t good, either. I have more medical conditions now added on to my previous ones from eating too much protein. I think that if we eat real foods and in moderation and balanced, we’ll probably do much better than trying to figure out which information out there is correct and which is misleading or outright false. But definitely, out with synthetic! And I trust the orgainic thinking much more than mainstream or fanatic reasoning. I hope you find the answers that you need in this frustrating array of contradictions. I truly believe the Creator of our bodies knows best what they need, and He welcomes and bids us to just ask Him. He will faithfully lead us if we keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Him. God bless you in your healthwalk…
This is a total surprise to me. I was buying grass fed, uncured hotdogs with celery juice and I was eating celery regularly. It is nice to know I don’t have to be so vigilant, at least about cured meats. I guess I will add this to my list of things I was eating for my health that turned out to be less healthful than I thought. That list is getting longer and longer-vegan diet, soy (I used to make my own soymilk.), vitamin C, vitamins in general, antioxidants, coffee (at least for me because of my wimpy adrenal glands), calcium supplements specifically, possibly iodine (I haven’t figured that one out yet.), baby aspirin, fish oil, folic acid, whole grains or any grains, alkaline water (my body became too alkaline). Now I am wondering about vegetables and eat them mostly because I like them and they are low in calories. I am trying to find a way just to eat less of everything except for adequate protein. Now, I won’t feel so bad about eating bacon of any kind, except for it not being Kosher (no problem, not Jewish) and not right for anyone’s blood type (according to Dr. Dadamo-Eat Right for Your Type). Thanks!
Hi Carolyn,
I love the good humor and authenticity of your post. Your holistic health outlook and writing style is refreshing! So, thank you. Would like to get to know you better, too, as I am a big holistic health aficionada. My name on facebook is Ti Bergenn.
Have a beautiful Saturday afternoon!
My husband and I grow pasture raised pigs in downeast Maine. We have used a butcher 3+ hours away because of their nitrate-free smoking. We have had difficulty finding a convenient butcher who offers liscenced nitrate-free smoking, which is what our customers want and what we thought we should be selling. Your article has been very eye opening. Because of it (and the several we have read debunking the nitrate/nitrite myth), we are choosing a more local butcher. Better for everyone!
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your work to date- you have have not only only helped me & then some with my personal wellness goals but my with clients on broader scale as I operate as a personal trainer.
I have quick question that appears to be slightly conflicting in relation to your article- ‘The Nitrate and Nitrite Myth: Another Reason not to Fear Bacon’. In a nutshell I am confused considering the nitrates you speak of in bacon are synthesized yet you draw a comparison in this article to naturally occurring nitrites in vegetables. In previous articles you flag the point synthesized & naturally occurring forms of a particular nutrient can have a completely different biological process i,e trans fats & folic acid, is this not applicable with nitrates?
Many thanks for the clarification,
Tom
I would think it’s not applicable to nitrates because the molecular structure is the same whether it’s from plants, saliva, or from meat curing. To clarify, a “nitrate” is simply a nitrogen with three oxygens attached. There isn’t any room for structural changes in that molecule. Compare that to trans fats, which are a completely rearranged molecule from its original form into a form that does not exist in nature (because bonding is changed), and folic acid, which is a different molecule than the natural folates that occur (e.g. 5-MTHF) in food.
Hope that answers your question, I’m not an organic chemist so someone might need to verify my answer! 🙂
There should be a warning label on Cialis: Do not take with Bacon as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure.
Your assertions are contrary to a recent study from the journal of BMC Medicine (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/study-processed-meat-linked-to-premature-death/273773/). “For half a million people throughout ten European countries, a study in BMC Medicine found, consuming processed meat went along with other unhealthful lifestyle choices, such as eating few fruits and vegetables, being more likely to smoke and, for men, consuming large quantities of alcohol.”
“But because this sample size was so large, the researchers were able to isolate meat consumption from these other factors. When they did so, they found the association between processed meat and premature death became even stronger. They estimated that if people reduced their daily meat consumption to under 20 grams — cutting sausage down to a matchbook-sized portion — about 3 percent of premature deaths in a given year could be prevented.”
First, the study is a sham. It is has been discredited as utter nonsense.
Second they are making an assumption that eating fruits and vegetables is “healthy” – based on what? Third, they are making an “association”.
Another point is that I theorize a large portion of those eating processed meat have it with bread. Did they rule out bread consumption? How?
Aside from all that, the article Mr. Kresser wrote was referencing nitrates and nitrites, not processed food.
There’s now way to control for all of the possible confounding behaviors and dietary choices in a study like the one you linked to. Smoking, weight and alcohol consumption are important, but that’s just scratching the surface. Since people have had the idea that processed meats are “unhealthy” for many years, people who eat more of them are also more likely to engage in any number of behaviors and make dietary choices that actually are unhealthy. (This is called the “healthy user effect”.) It’s incredibly difficult to control for all of those factors in a large epidemiological study. And if it’s not nitrites and nitrates in processed meats that’s causing the increase in death, what is it? The sodium? Other studies have shown that sodium intake only increases blood pressure in a small group of hyper-responders. This is the problem with relying on observational epidemiology in nutrition.
This article was about nitrates and nitrites specifically, not processed meat in general. But I think the jury is still out on processed meats, and this recent study isn’t conclusive.
I think you’re way off the mark concerning nitrates and nitrites. They make me physically sick. I LOVE bacon, I don’t want to have to watch what I buy. It really hacks me off, but preservatives make me SICK! I only eat bacon that hasn’t been treated with nitrates and nitrites and no hormones or antibiotics.
“There’s now way to control for all of the possible confounding behaviors and dietary choices in a study like the one you linked to.”
What do you base this on Chris? Gut instinct? Ever heard of covariance? Are you saying that the researchers and their peers who reviewed this article didn’t know what they were doing?
Then how do you explain the 3-day headache I get when I have bacon with this garbage in it?
Wow Chris, has this topic created more comments than any other?
I stopped or slowed down on my consuption of processed meats back in the early eighties. At that time I was living in Montana and I had a moose, an elk and a deer to process. During the jerky/summer sauage making I became aware of how little ‘cure’ or pink sodium nitrite it took to preserve meat. The typical formula called for only a 1/4 teaspoon of cure for 10 lbs of meat. The use of this small amount of cure really caught my attention. It told me that anything this powerful should be avoided. I then made my jerky/summer sauage without it and I then froze my products.