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I get sinus headaches from sodium nitrites (among other things). I was stoked about the nitrite free bacon. Had it, got a headache, found out about celery after

I get sinus headaches from sodium nitrites (among other things). I was stoked about the nitrite free bacon. Had it, got a headache, found out about celery after a bunch of searching. I need to find a butcher so I can just get straight pork belly.

tptacek 9y ago
Are you sure it isn't just salt that's doing that to you? There's more nitrate in bacon than in plain pork belly to be sure, but there's actually not much of it, and the amounts you need to consume to have a vasoconstrictive effect seems high. Meanwhile: bacon (along with all cured meat and fish) is one of the very saltiest things we eat. Lots of people are salt-sensitive. This is probably what virtually all claims of "Chinese restaurant syndrome" (MSG sensitivity) turned out to be. You should have no trouble finding pork belly. Try an experiment: just make your own bacon by filling a pan with kosher salt and pushing each side of the pork belly into it until they're all evenly and aggressively covered. Wrap the meat in plastic wrap, dump the pan, and put the meat back in it; leave it in the fridge for 3-4† days. Rinse it off and slice it. See if you get a headache from eating it. (Home-cured bacon is good but if you don't add some of the carcinogen back to the cure, it's not safe to keep much longer than fresh meat is). † That's a light cure, but long enough for this experiment, and if you're new to baconing and don't know what to look for, under-cured is better than over.
- TACIXAT 9y ago
  I am actually sure. I eat salt daily. I'll try that with the pork belly because it sounds delicious. The big footnote missing from my post is that I'm celiac. I've done a ton of trial and error to find foods that cause me problems. I basically eat chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper) and rice (with butter) everyday. I only drink water and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. My snacks are popcorn and salted potato or corn chips. On this diet I don't get sinus headaches. No one likes to hear it, but I've isolated monosodium glutamate as a trigger too. It's in a ton of flavored chips that I ate thinking they'd be fine for me. Give me a month to try this. I'll let you know how it turns out.
  - meej 9y ago
    I'm a bit late here, but I am wondering if you've considered the possibility that your sinus headaches are actually migraines? The two are often confused because they present similarly, and it is believed amongst headache and migraine experts that most so-called sinus headaches are actually migraines. It would explain the MSG trigger, too.
  - tptacek 9y ago
    You eat salt daily, of course, but you're never eating so much concentrated salt as you are when you eat any significant amount of bacon. I'm not suggesting that you're so sensitive that the amount of salt you get from a salt shaker, or from seasoning a steak or a burger before cooking it, is going to set you off. There's so much salt in the bacon that it dramatically alters the texture of the meat! You also believe yourself to be sensitive to MSG, but the common thread between the foods that are causing you symptoms might not be a pair of poorly-observed sensitivities, but rather that the foods that trigger you tend to be very salty.
    - mathattack 9y ago
      It doesn’t seem like much sodium per Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=bacon+nutritional+value&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS590US590&oq=bacon+nurition&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0l3.6963j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=bacon+nutritional+value&rlz=...
      - originalsimba 9y ago
        but then you pour salt on it when cooking. I mean who eats saltless bacon? Gross. Why would you even bother. Anyway this stuff really doesn't matter. People have been attacking foods since I was a baby. It's nearly always lies. Literally every single thing that you can eat has been attacked as being fattening, cancer causing, or "bad for you" and 99.999999% of the time there is zero science behind it. For example people to this day claim that aspartame is poisonous even tho it is most definitely not. And now those same people attack Splenda. The fact is none of them know what they're talking about and they're unhappy with their lives so they don't want you enjoying yours. So they attack your foods. This has been going on at least my entire life but probably much longer than that.

tptacek 9y ago

Are you sure it isn't just salt that's doing that to you? There's more nitrate in bacon than in plain pork belly to be sure, but there's actually not much of it, and the amounts you need to consume to have a vasoconstrictive effect seems high. Meanwhile: bacon (along with all cured meat and fish) is one of the very saltiest things we eat. Lots of people are salt-sensitive. This is probably what virtually all claims of "Chinese restaurant syndrome" (MSG sensitivity) turned out to be. You should have no trouble finding pork belly. Try an experiment: just make your own bacon by filling a pan with kosher salt and pushing each side of the pork belly into it until they're all evenly and aggressively covered. Wrap the meat in plastic wrap, dump the pan, and put the meat back in it; leave it in the fridge for 3-4† days. Rinse it off and slice it. See if you get a headache from eating it. (Home-cured bacon is good but if you don't add some of the carcinogen back to the cure, it's not safe to keep much longer than fresh meat is). † That's a light cure, but long enough for this experiment, and if you're new to baconing and don't know what to look for, under-cured is better than over.

TACIXAT 9y ago
I am actually sure. I eat salt daily. I'll try that with the pork belly because it sounds delicious. The big footnote missing from my post is that I'm celiac. I've done a ton of trial and error to find foods that cause me problems. I basically eat chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper) and rice (with butter) everyday. I only drink water and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. My snacks are popcorn and salted potato or corn chips. On this diet I don't get sinus headaches. No one likes to hear it, but I've isolated monosodium glutamate as a trigger too. It's in a ton of flavored chips that I ate thinking they'd be fine for me. Give me a month to try this. I'll let you know how it turns out.
- meej 9y ago
  I'm a bit late here, but I am wondering if you've considered the possibility that your sinus headaches are actually migraines? The two are often confused because they present similarly, and it is believed amongst headache and migraine experts that most so-called sinus headaches are actually migraines. It would explain the MSG trigger, too.
- tptacek 9y ago
  You eat salt daily, of course, but you're never eating so much concentrated salt as you are when you eat any significant amount of bacon. I'm not suggesting that you're so sensitive that the amount of salt you get from a salt shaker, or from seasoning a steak or a burger before cooking it, is going to set you off. There's so much salt in the bacon that it dramatically alters the texture of the meat! You also believe yourself to be sensitive to MSG, but the common thread between the foods that are causing you symptoms might not be a pair of poorly-observed sensitivities, but rather that the foods that trigger you tend to be very salty.
  - mathattack 9y ago
    It doesn’t seem like much sodium per Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=bacon+nutritional+value&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS590US590&oq=bacon+nurition&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0l3.6963j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=bacon+nutritional+value&rlz=...
    - originalsimba 9y ago
      but then you pour salt on it when cooking. I mean who eats saltless bacon? Gross. Why would you even bother. Anyway this stuff really doesn't matter. People have been attacking foods since I was a baby. It's nearly always lies. Literally every single thing that you can eat has been attacked as being fattening, cancer causing, or "bad for you" and 99.999999% of the time there is zero science behind it. For example people to this day claim that aspartame is poisonous even tho it is most definitely not. And now those same people attack Splenda. The fact is none of them know what they're talking about and they're unhappy with their lives so they don't want you enjoying yours. So they attack your foods. This has been going on at least my entire life but probably much longer than that.