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It's my hope that we'll find a better, non-nitrate way to combat botulism. That's the only reason nitrates are added- cured meats can sometimes foster botulism.

by ip26 6y ago

It's my hope that we'll find a better, non-nitrate way to combat botulism. That's the only reason nitrates are added- cured meats can sometimes foster botulism. Alternatively, I hope we might make a lucky discovery around gut flora. If bacteria in your digestive tract are digesting compounds in the cured meat & creating carcinogens, perhaps cultivating a different gut flora (e.g. through a predominantly plant-based diet) would be protective. Yet a third option, from Wikipedia: Endogenous nitrosamine formation can be inhibited by ascorbic acid. In the case of formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach from dietary nitrite (used as processed meat preservative), ascorbic acid markedly decreases nitrosamine formation in the absence of fat in the meal; but when 10% fat is present, this reverses the effect such that ascorbic acid then markedly increases nitrosamine formation. So perhaps we will one day determine that a plate of bacon is unhealthy, while two slices of bacon (18g, 7g fat) plus an orange (150g, 0g fat, 50mg ascorbic acid) is actually perfectly healthy.

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
>> It's my hope that we'll find a better, non-nitrate way to combat botulism. That's the only reason nitrates are added- cured meats can sometimes foster botulism. Well, there's some evidence that nitrate-cured meats aren't safer from botulism than the alternative; and the evidence comes from the (British) meat industry itself: An [internal report] written for the British meat industry reveals nitrites do not protect against botulism – the chief reason ham and bacon manufacturers say they use the chemicals. The study, conducted for the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) by the scientific consultancy Campden, and marked “confidential”, examines the growth of the toxin Clostridium botulinum in the processing of bacon and ham. It is understood that the paper, seen by the Observer, was commissioned to provide evidence that nitrites, which have long been linked to cancer, are essential to protect consumers from food poisoning and, in particular, botulism, a potentially fatal disease. But, in what appears to be a major blow to the industry’s claims, the research found there was no significant growth of the bacteria in either the nitrite-free or the nitrite-cured samples that were tested. The paper concludes: “The results show that there is no change in levels of inoculated C botulinum over the curing process, which implies that the action of nitrite during curing is not toxic to C botulinum spores at levels of 150ppm [parts per million] ingoing nitrite and below.” https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/23/nitrites-ham-bacon-cancer-risk-additives-meat-industry-confidential--report https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/23/nitrites-ham-ba... (edited out some sensationalist language in the quoted passage).
- ip26 6y ago
  Good to know! I find myself thinking of flame retardants in furniture. Most fatal house fires were started by smoldering cigarettes, and so flame testing of furniture is designed around these conditions. But smoking has plummeted in prevalence, while flame retardants have demonstrated all kinds of negative health impacts.
anaerobicover 6y ago
There are a number of vegetable sources of nitr{a,i}tes as well. A stick of celery has more (potassium IIRC) nitrate than a typical piece of salami has (sodium) nitrate. This is why celery juice is an ingredient in so-called "nitrate-free" cured products. They're not actually nitrate-free, they just use celery juice as a source instead of adding a pure powder, so they don't have to list "sodium nitrate" explicitly. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/food/celery-juice-viable-alternative-nitrites-cured-meats https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/food/celery-juice-viable-a...

by ip26 6y ago

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

>> It's my hope that we'll find a better, non-nitrate way to combat botulism. That's the only reason nitrates are added- cured meats can sometimes foster botulism. Well, there's some evidence that nitrate-cured meats aren't safer from botulism than the alternative; and the evidence comes from the (British) meat industry itself: An [internal report] written for the British meat industry reveals nitrites do not protect against botulism – the chief reason ham and bacon manufacturers say they use the chemicals. The study, conducted for the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) by the scientific consultancy Campden, and marked “confidential”, examines the growth of the toxin Clostridium botulinum in the processing of bacon and ham. It is understood that the paper, seen by the Observer, was commissioned to provide evidence that nitrites, which have long been linked to cancer, are essential to protect consumers from food poisoning and, in particular, botulism, a potentially fatal disease. But, in what appears to be a major blow to the industry’s claims, the research found there was no significant growth of the bacteria in either the nitrite-free or the nitrite-cured samples that were tested. The paper concludes: “The results show that there is no change in levels of inoculated C botulinum over the curing process, which implies that the action of nitrite during curing is not toxic to C botulinum spores at levels of 150ppm [parts per million] ingoing nitrite and below.” https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/23/nitrites-ham-bacon-cancer-risk-additives-meat-industry-confidential--report https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/23/nitrites-ham-ba... (edited out some sensationalist language in the quoted passage).

ip26 6y ago
Good to know! I find myself thinking of flame retardants in furniture. Most fatal house fires were started by smoldering cigarettes, and so flame testing of furniture is designed around these conditions. But smoking has plummeted in prevalence, while flame retardants have demonstrated all kinds of negative health impacts.

anaerobicover 6y ago

There are a number of vegetable sources of nitr{a,i}tes as well. A stick of celery has more (potassium IIRC) nitrate than a typical piece of salami has (sodium) nitrate. This is why celery juice is an ingredient in so-called "nitrate-free" cured products. They're not actually nitrate-free, they just use celery juice as a source instead of adding a pure powder, so they don't have to list "sodium nitrate" explicitly. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/food/celery-juice-viable-alternative-nitrites-cured-meats https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/food/celery-juice-viable-a...