You're still getting the industrial levels of nitrates/nitrites. They just stuff it in as an extract from celery. The problem isn't the curing, per se. In ol

You're still getting the industrial levels of nitrates/nitrites. They just stuff it in as an extract from celery. The problem isn't the curing, per se. In old school hand curing, almost all the nitrate/nitrite has reacted and is gone by the time you buy the meat. The problem is the industrialization of the process. In order to not have to inspect the cured meat (as that would take people--the horror!), industry injects a massive amount of curing agents such that even when the meat is "fully cured" there is still a ton of it left in the meat itself.