You Say Nitrate, I Say Nitrite:

Let’s Call the Whole Uncured Thing Off

A little homemade bacon. Notice there isn’t any pink salt.

Americans love their food labels: “natural,” “cage-free,” “fresh.” On one stunning occasion in my local grocery store, I read the label, “gluten-free” on the side of a whole chicken. Trust me, raw chicken, regardless of how it’s raised, is gluten-free.

But there is one label that creates more unnecessary anxiety and confusion than all others. As a butcher, I was asked about it daily. And in civilian life, I get panicked looks from concerned parents all too often. “Are your products ‘uncured,?’ Do you use nitrates…or is it nitrites?”

You see, nitrates and nitrites—once the preserving darling of meat makers the world over—have been given a bit of a black eye in recent decades. For years, researchers have been encouraging us to eat less red meat, and especially processed meats. But in 2015, a study by the UN really didn’t beat around the bush any longer, listing processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, right up there with cigarettes and nuclear reactors. Nitrates and nitrites (often used in processed meats) were guilty by association.

Suddenly, Americans were demanding that their bacon and bologna be cleansed of these dastardly chemicals, and so, the “uncured” craze began.

But, what are nitrates and nitrites in the first place? Ready for some food history?

Before refrigerators and freezer bags, ancients needed a way to prevent spoilage of their leftover meats. The Babylonians realized that sprinkling table salt (sodium chloride) on proteins worked pretty well. The downside was that it dehydrated the meat into dry, chewy jerky. Around 1600 BCE, the Chinese discovered that saltpeter (a naturally occurring nitrate), could also preserve their extra piggy parts. Coincidentally, they didn’t discover saltpeter’s other benefit as an ingredient in gunpowder for another 2500 years.

Curing with nitrates intensified flavor but—over time, and under special conditions—it also turned meat a beautiful pink color, and preserved things without dehydration. Cured meats started to look less like biltong, and more like bacon.

Smoking also works to preserve meats. Maybe I’ll write that post one day.

Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution, food researchers discovered the actual chemical process taking place. Over several weeks or months, the saltpeter (nitrate with an “a”) was turning into nitrite (with an “i”). This nitrite was the reason for all the preserving benefits. So, food producers started using synthetically manufactured nitrite in their recipes—instead of the nitrate—dramatically reducing curing times from weeks or months, to days or hours. Because this synthetic stuff was so potent, and looked just like salt, they tinted it pink. That’s why folks in the food biz call the stuff “pink salt.” Note: this is very different than that Himalayan stuff you get at the fancy grocery store. That’s just table salt with pink minerals.

So back to the uncured craze. Why are we bashing nitrates if they’re so helpful?

In their technological exuberance, 20^th Century food makers were using a TON of nitrite. Folks assumed that more nitrite meant better. And of course, they created a perfect food born cancer storm. It turns out, when large concentrations of nitrites are exposed to high heat (i.e. a hot frying pan) and a protein-rich, amino acid abundant environement—say a delicious slice of bacon—they can mutate into less stable and less desirable compounds, most notably…..nitrosamines. 

Nitrosamines are bad juju. Like, really bad. These guys are some of the most potent carcinogens out there. They were made infamous in the 1960s as the main cancer-causer in cigarette smoke. People started to suspect that all nitrite rich foods were killers.

Wouldn’t it be nice if things were so black and white?

Believe it or not, nitrates and nitrites are in almost every food we eat. More than 80% of the nitrites and nitrates we consume come from cancer-preventing vegetables, not hot dogs. In fact, a spinach salad has more nitrates than a ham sandwich. That’s because nitrates and nitrites (in small amounts) are broken down by our body into nitrous oxide, which can actually improve blood flow, circulation, and prevent heart attacks. Even human saliva naturally produces nitrates during the digestive process, although why it does is not entirely understood. 

Dr. Walter Willett, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health goes a bit further.

“Nitrates are important molecules, but don’t worry too much about

them in your diet, because it’s not clear how crucial they are compared

to everything else that’s found in different foods."

So wait. Don’t worry? How is that possible?  

The UN didn’t outlaw curing salts in their 2015 report. In fact, they didn’t even recommend excluding processed meats. They just said folks chowing down on bacon seven days a week, or eating a bologna sandwich at every recess probably wasn’t good colon health.

That sounds a bit like a recommendation for moderation to me.

I like to think of it in a more historical way. The Romans gave us the term “to cure” from the Latin verb curare, which means to tend or care for. Curing meats before synthetically produced pink salt, took months. It was an artform, and required patience, perseverance, and years of perfecting. The pork legs I’ve cured took more than a year before they were ready to eat, and I had to check them weekly, sometimes to find they’d failed entirely.

Technology is just too good at providing an abundance of things we don’t need in abundance. We should be savoring cured and processed meats, celebrating the artistry, honoring the seasonality, and resisting overindulgence. Our bodies are literally telling us this when they reject a diet out of balance. Dosis sola facit venenum: The dose makes the poison.

I know, I’m asking for some restraint and to embrace creating an artificial scarcity when it comes to prolific and tasty pork products. But what I’m really doing is asking you to let your Enlightened Omnivore freak flag fly. “Everything in moderation,” remember?

And for those of you who want to delete processed meats from your lives entirely just because it’s easier, I say resist. There is so much mystery left about the human body. We don’t even know why our bodies make nitrates in our saliva, but it must have a purpose. We have evolved over millions of years to be omnivores. Yes, there are many other ways to get the nutritional benefits of a slice of bacon. But I believe that omnivores eating a little bit of everything—including bacon—is the most resilient, sustainable, and practical path forward.

And honestly, if you’re still anxious about all all this uncured vs. cured talk, or you’re about to punch me through your screen, I recommend pouring yourself a glass of orange juice, maybe with a little splash of Prosecco. Not only will the bubbles calm your nerves, but it turns out that the Vitamin C in your OJ actually has nitrosamine-slaying properties.

Cancer-fighting Mimosas? I’ll drink to that!