The Bacon Cure
Could it be our ancestors were right after all? That today’s new, improved and supposedly healthy versions of bacon are not? The traditional way to make bacon is dry cured through hand rubbing with a mixture of herbs, sugars, salt, and the sodium nitrite curing salts. Vitamin C in the mix helps form the nitrosylheme pigment that gives cured meats their wonderful red color, and, as will be explained shortly, helps ensure nitrites convert to healthy nitric oxide and not carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Traditional producers leave the bacon to cure for anywhere from a day to a month before slow-smoking it over applewood, hickory or other wood fires, generally from one to three days. The extended curing time intensifies the pork flavor and shrinks the meat so that the bacon doesn’t shrivel and splatter as it cooks.
Flavor can vary quite a bit from producer to producer, and is determined by the ingredients of the cure, the method of smoking, and the timing. The age, gender, and breed of the pig, as well as its time outdoors, forage and feed all influence the final flavor of the bacon as well as its potential for health benefits or risks.
Dirty Little Secrets
Supermarket bacon may also use sodium nitrite, but not in a traditional way. Instead, manufacturers opt for fast and cheap methods by which inferior quality factory-farmed meat is pumped and plumped with a liquid cure solution that includes sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite, along with “liquid smoke,” spices and flavorings heavy in MSG. After “curing” for a few hours, the pork is sprayed with more “liquid smoke” and heated until a smoke-like flavor permeates the meat. The pork is then quickly chilled, machine-pressed into a uniform shape, sliced, and packaged for sale. Pumped and plumped bacon may look big in the package, but shrinks, shrivels and splatters when cooked.
“Liquid smoke,” a product heavily favored by big food manufacturers, is produced by burning wood chips or sawdust, then condensing the smoke into solids or liquids and dissolving it in water. It is being investigated by the European Food Safety Authority for safety as a food flavoring because of evidence of genotoxicity and cytotoxicity. Indeed, one study suggests liquid smoke is more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke concentrate.38-41
Concerns about Nitrite
Concerns about the safety of nitrite first surfaced in the 1960s when studies showed the presence of carcinogenic nitrosamines in bacon and other cured meat products. In the early 1970s, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology implicated nitrite itself as a carcinogen. The MIT study involved direct feeding of nitrite to laboratory rats, and later studies did not support the headline-making conclusion that nitrite induces cancer. The USDA’s concern then shifted to the formation of nitrosamines from nitrite combining with the amines available in meat, with regulators weighing the possible risk of cancer against nitrite’s traditional and well-proven role protecting us from botulism and other forms of food poisoning. 42
Since then commercial bacon has been heavily studied and subject to regulatory monitoring of nitrosamine levels. Although nitrosamines have been found in many cured meats, they are most consistently found in fried bacon.43-50 A look at the research, however, shows it to be inconsistent, contradictory and confusing.
Over the years, most scientists have blamed the nitrosamines on frying although some data suggest nitrosamines can be produced as an artifact during the analytical procedure whenever residual nitrite is present.51. Wood smoke has also been blamed though the culprit might actually be “liquid smoke.”52
In 1973 the Canadian Department of Agriculture found preformed nitrosamines in the readymade spice mixes favored by Big Ag bacon processors as well as many of the smaller producers. After the USDA confirmed the Canadian findings, regulators made these spice mixes illegal.53 The USDA also soon required the use of sodium erythorbates and/ or ascorbates in bacon processing after consistent research findings indicated these substances pushed nitrosamine levels way down.54
Obviously some of the nitrosamine problem stems from industrial processing. The USDA may have outlawed certain spice mixes back in the 1970s, but preformed nitrosamines might well exist in the latest generation of artificial and “natural” flavorings and “liquid smokes.” Also worrisome are references to “meat batters” and to high pressure, high temperature processing methods known to produce nitrosamines and routinely used to produce commercial bacon.
Choosing dry cured or “country style” bacon made by small producers would seem to be a safer option, but in some instances might generate even higher levels of N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR) after frying compared to pump-cured bacon.55 The problem is processing methods vary widely, with different choices and concentrations of spices, sodium nitrite and sometimes sodium nitrate. The USDA now recommends that processors not add sodium nitrate because it is not necessary and the conversion of nitrate to nitrite is variable and somewhat unpredictable.
Fat in the Feeds
From the WAPF point of view, the most interesting and helpful findings concern the effect of fatty acid composition on nitrosamine formation. After all, factory-farmed pigs routinely eat feeds that include soy, corn and other inferior oils while pastured pigs should not.
In 1984, researchers discovered that bacon from pigs fed corn oil-supplemented diets contains significantly higher levels of the nitrosamines n-nitrosopyrrolidine and n-nitrosodimethylamine compared to controls. They also reported that bacon from pigs fed a coconut fat-supplemented diet contains significantly lower levels of n-nitrosopyrrolidine but no significant difference in n-nitrosodimethylamine levels compared to controls.
Given that the controls were fed a standard commercial corn and soy-based diet supplemented with vitamins and minerals, we can only wonder what might be found with bacon sourced from optimally nourished, pastured pigs. Be that as it may, one of the researchers’ conclusions is telling: “Fatty acid analyses of the adipose tissue of the bacon samples indicated that n-nitrosopyrrolidine levels in bacon correlated well with the degree of unsaturation of the adipose tissue.”56 Other research supports the connection between nitrosamine formation and the fatty acid profiles of animal feed and meat. Nitrosamines, show up more frequently in the fat than in the lean.57-59
The takeaway is clear: choose bacon from pastured pigs.
That said, finding genuine, traditionally cured artisanal bacon is just about impossible. The anti-nitrite message has penetrated so deeply that most artesanal farmers produce their bacon using the dry salt way but without added nitrites, relying on salt, good sanitary practices and refrigeration to prevent contamination. In the days prior to refrigeration, of course, the sodium nitrite step was not an option. This type of “no added nitrate or nitrates” products are honest compared to the newfangled celery salt “uncured” bacons, and are obviously far healthier than supermarket pumped and plumped bacon-like products, or the fakin’ bacons from turkey or soy.
That said, there is probably nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned bacon cured with a precise amount of sodium nitrite curing salts. If the idea of nitrite still seems scary, consider this: Ascorbic acid is routinely added to cured meats along with the nitrite in order to promote beneficial nitric oxide formation from nitrite, and to inhibit nitrosation reactions in the stomach that can lead to carcinogenic nitrosamines. Bringing alpha tocopherol (Vitamin E) into the mix as well seems to further prevent occurrence of nitrosamine formation.60-63 Old-fashioned processing, involving leisurely time for curing and smoking, further enhances the conversion of nitrite to the beneficial nitric oxide molecule.
Just Say “NO”
In 1998 Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad won the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine for their discovery of nitric oxide (NO) as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. As the first molecule discovered that can literally communicate with other molecules, nitric oxide revolutionized conventional scientific thinking.64
In terms of preventing heart disease, nitric oxide produced by the cells in our blood vessels signals the surrounding arterial tissues to tell them to relax. That lowers blood pressure, expands narrow blood vessels, eliminates dangerous clots, and reduces the formation of plaque. Interestingly enough, NO lowers triglyceride levels, but not cholesterol, and researchers even report that NO even seems to protect those with high cholesterol. WAPF thinking, of course, holds that NO’s failure to lower cholesterol is a point in its favor, as cholesterol has many benies and no protection against high cholesterol is needed.
By optimizing circulation, NO affects every part of the body. More blood flow means better oxygen transfer and more energy. More blood flow means better brain function and better attention. And more blood flow means a better sex life.
Accordingly, NO is a key ingredient in many well-known erectile dysfunction products. Nitric oxide also benefits the immune system, where it helps us fight off infections, and the nervous system where it helps our brain cells communicate properly. NO’s myriad health benefits are summed up in the popular book The Nitric Oxide (NO) Solution by Nathan S.Bryan, PhD and Janet Zand, OMD.65 Although the book does not contain citations, a quick PubMed search reveals Dr. Bryan’s contribution to at least 88 journal articles, many establishing the NO benefits described above.
NO for Life
The message is NO is vital for a long, healthy and vital life. Unfortunately, few people today produce enough NO for optimal health, and NO deficiencies have been identified in many chronic diseases. Although NO supplements have been developed and marketed, and might well be helpful for people on plant-based, low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, such products might not be needed with a return to traditional foods. Traditionally cured bacon, sausage and other meats cured with sodium nitrite might be just the ticket to increasing NO production in the body.
Another big NO producing food is beets, suggesting yet another reason why so many WAPFers thrive on beet kvaas. Although foods rich in the amino acids citrulline and arginine are often recommended to increase NO production, most people are not young enough or healthy enough to turn that trick. Perhaps the more direct route from nitrite to NO is the way to go.
Nitrites and the Nitrogen Cycle
But aren’t nitrates and nitrites dangerous? Yes, and no. Nitrates are natural products of the nitrogen cycle and found in water, plants and animals. Approximately 80 percent of dietary nitrates are derived from vegetable consumption, and nitrites are naturally present in saliva, in the gut and indeed in all mammalian tissue.66 Clearly, we cannot be pro plant based diet and anti nitrates!
Levels of nitrite naturally increase in the body to help boost oxygen when people live at high altitudes, and such people are often considered among the healthiest in the world.67 In short, nitrites are not a problem, provided our diets are rich enough in antioxidants to facilitate the conversion of nitrites to NO and to prevent nitrosation reactions that convert nitrites into carcinogenic nitrosamines.
It’s obviously important to avoid eating readymade sources of nitrosamines, such as those that occur in soy protein isolates, non-fat dry milk and other products that have undergone acid washes, flame drying or high temperature spray-drying processes.68-70 People are also exposed to nitrosamines from some types of beer, cigarettes, nipples of baby bottles and the rubber used with braces in orthodontics.71-72
In other words, nitrosamines don’t just come from cured meats. Furthermore, the nitrosamine content in cured meats has gone way down over the past few decades.72 As for environmental damage from nitrates, this problem comes from the land use abuses of factory farming.
Bring Home the Bacon
Then why do so many health experts condemn bacon and other cured meats because of their nitrite content? Well, why do fats and cholesterol still get a bum rap?
The reason is bad studies and worse publicity, with the latest shoddy work out of Harvard a prime example. According to Dr. Bryan, the body of studies show only a “weak association” with evidence that is “inconclusive.” As he and his colleagues wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “This paradigm needs revisiting in the face of undisputed health benefits of nitrite- and nitrate-enriched diets.”73 So what’s the last word on America’s favorite meat? Indulge bacon lust freely, know that the science is catching up, the media lags behind, and, our ancestors most likely got it right.
Weston Price Organization
Without a doubt the premiere organization in the United States connecting individuals to the farmers that are producing the healthiest food is Weston Price. They have hundreds of chapters throughout the country that are likely not to far from where you live. You can contact a chapter leader near you, and they can help you identify local resources to provide you and your family with health food that is grown locally.
About the Author
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is the Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has been on The Dr Oz Show, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and PBS Healing Quest. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions, Biosignature, National Association of Nutritional Professionals and other conferences, Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her websites are www.naughtynutritionist.com and www.wholesoystory.com.
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