Bacon, sausages and ham rank alongside smoking as cancer causes, says WHO

[GliderGuider]

98. It's your body, so you get to decide whose agenda you believe

And trust me, in nutrition everyone has an agenda. This excerpt is from a web site you might find more balanced. The tone is certainly less confrontational than the one I posted earlier.

Nitrites In Food

Pick Your Poison: Botulism or Nitrosamines?

Consumer concern about nitrites in cured meats is a result of several studies that have linked cold cuts to cancer, in particular, colorectal cancer. Nitrites have mostly been accused, but results of various studies have been inconsistent, with some showing a strong correlation between the intake of cured meats and cancer and others finding no link at all. We do know that under certain conditions, nitrites can produce carcinogenic chemical compounds called nitrosamines. Those conditions include strong acidity – as in stomach acid, or cooking with high temperatures, for example, frying. Bacon has been the biggest target as it almost always contains nitrosamines and is cooked at a high temperature. Not all processed meats produce nitrosamines, however, yet there still appears to be a link between cold cuts and cancer and research is looking at the high amounts of sodium and saturated fat found in these foods as other potential causes.

Synthetic vs. Natural Nitrites

Many food manufacturers have created new product lines featuring cold cuts and cured meats that are free of the chemical form of nitrite but instead use cultured celery powder, a natural alternative to nitrites. Lately, some have been criticized for labelling their meats ‘preservative-free’ or claiming ‘no added nitrates’ when, in fact, cultured celery powder contains preformed nitrites.

There are some differences between synthetic and more natural forms of nitrite. Synthetic curing salt is dyed pink to differentiate it from table salt and to help it blend better with meat. Also, the amount of nitrite in a food is more difficult to control when using the natural forms of the preservative. The maximum allowable amount of (synthetic) sodium nitrite added to food is 20 grams per 100 kilograms (or 200 ppm) or less, depending on the type of meat product. Mixing celery salts with a starter (a bacterial culture) to form nitrite is a difficult process to control; hence, a food preserved with cultured celery powder may contain even more nitrites than conventional meat products in which the amount of added nitrites is measured.

Now it's my time for full disclosure. I've been an Atkins dieter since the late 70s, my diet today is 90% meat, and I think Gary Taubes' book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" is one of the better pieces of science journalism I've read.

I'm not paid for my views, but I sure have opinions. One of them is that most of what passes for nutritional advice these days is utter shite - partly because the science hasn't advanced far enough yet (the study methodologies tend to be inconclusive and error-prone) and partly because the referees for science journals have their own agendas, but largely because most of it fails to take personal metabolic differences into account.

There's no one-size-fits-all diet any more than there are one-size-fits-all ice skates. So, you get to make up your own mind about who to trust. You should always treat their advice skeptically, and always take it in conjunction with listening to your own body - it's the one you have to live with.