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Introduction To Sodium Nitrate Dangers
 Nearly all processed meats are made with sodium nitrite, sausage, hot dogs, bacon, lunch/deli meat, and even meats in canned soup products. This ingredient is a precursor to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines which are potent cancer-causing chemicals that accelerate the formation and growth of cancer cells throughout the body. When you eat sodium nitrite in popular meat products, nitrosamines are formed in the body where they promote the growth of various cancers, including colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is not the only negative side effect of consuming processed meats such. Leukaemia also skyrockets by 700% following the consumption of hot dogs. (Preston-Martin, S. et al. "N-nitroso compounds and childhood brain tumours: A case-control study." Cancer Res. 1982; 42:5240-5.)
You can help reduce the cancer-causing effects of sodium nitrite by consuming protective antioxidants before meals, such as vitamin C and vitamin E. But no vitamin offers 100% protection. The only safe strategy is to avoid sodium nitrite completely.
Expectant mothers should avoid consuming sodium nitrite due to the greatly heightened risk of brain tumours in infants. Parents should also avoid feeding their children products that contain sodium nitrite, including all hot dogs, treated bacon, jerkies, sausages and pizzas made with pepperoni or other processed meats. Sodium nitrite is especially dangerous to fetuses, infants and children.
Many school lunch programs currently serve schoolchildren meat products containing sodium nitrite. Hospital cafeterias also serve this cancer-causing ingredient to patients. Sodium nitrite is found in literally thousands of different menu items at fast food restaurants and dining establishments. The use of this ingredient is widespread and it is part of the reason we're seeing skyrocketing rates of cancer in every society that consumes large quantities of processed meats.
Consumers can look for "Nitrite-free" or "Nitrate-free" labels when shopping for meat products. They can also purchase fresh meats, which are almost never prepared with sodium nitrite. We purchase the small amount of meat we use from a local farm where we know the source is as organic as it can get. It is worth investing a little extra time to source good foods. The new research on processed meats points to a chemical toxin as the cause of the increased cancer risk. A heightened cancer risk of 67% is as substantial as it can get.
The new research on processed meats points to a chemical toxin as the cause of the increased cancer risk. A heightened cancer risk of 67% is as substantial as it can get. Nearly all processed meats are made with sodium nitrite: breakfast sausage, hot dogs, jerkies, bacon, lunch meat, and even meats in canned soup products. Yet this ingredient is a precursor to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines -- potent cancer-causing chemicals that accelerate the formation and growth of cancer cells throughout the body. When consumers eat sodium nitrite in popular meat products, nitrosamines are formed in the body where they promote the growth of various cancers, including colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer. Sodium nitrite is a dangerous, cancer-causing ingredient that has no place in the human food supply. The USDA actually tried to ban sodium nitrite in the 1970's, but was preempted by the meat processing industry, which relies on the ingredient as a color fixer to make foods look more visually appealing. The meat industry uses sodium nitrite to sell more meat products at the expense of public health as all research clearly demonstrates the link between the consumption of processed meats and cancer.
Food Safety & Profits
On the Dutch Governments Chemical Safety safety web site Sodium Nitrate is described as:
"Harmful if swallowed. Skin, eye and respiratory irritant. Strong oxidizer - may ignite flammable material. Incompatible with cyanides, combustible material, strong reducing agents, aluminium"
In the UK a major paper by the British Medical Council indicate there's a great deal of similarity between the food companies that market unhealthy foods and Big Tobacco. Both industries rely in misinformation, burying negative data, and confusing the public with conflicting evidence. And just as Big Tobacco has long insisted that nicotine is not addictive and there is nothing unhealthy about smoking cigarettes, the food industry and soft drink companies continue to insist there is no such thing as an unhealthy food. They say that any food, no matter what ingredients are in it, can be part of a healthful diet. They also tend to blame lack of exercise, rather than their foods, for causing obesity.
The position of the world food industry is, of course, nothing short of outlandish. To suggest that there's no such thing as an unhealthy food strains the credibility of logic and common sense. Clearly, there are some foods that promote obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases. At the same time, there are other foods that even prevent those diseases.
Essentially, this can be understood by looking at the ingredients that are in the foods. It is the ingredients themselves that give the healthful or health-destroying characteristics to food and beverage products. For example, any food made with high-fructose corn syrup is likely to promote diabetes or obesity. Likewise, any food made with refined white flour will also promote diabetes and obesity. In a similar way, foods made with ingredients that cause cancer, such as sodium nitrite or saccharin, will of course result in cancer if a person consumes them in large enough quantities and with enough frequency. Many of these ingredients, are, in effect, slow-acting poisons, and it appears to be the position of the food and beverage industry that poisons really aren't poisonous. Apparently, in their view, you could put any ingredient into a food or beverage, and it would have absolutely no effect on a person's health. In other words, the food industry is trying to destroy the cause-effect relationship between the foods and beverages a person consumes and the level of health they subsequently exhibit.
Accordingly, these industries would like to rewrite the rules of cause and effect in the universe, and overturn the laws of physics and biochemistry. Perhaps executives from these food and beverage companies should also join the Flat Earth Society in order remain consistent with their worldviews. The real story in all of this is that foods and beverages do have a dramatic and obvious health effect on the human body. Every cell in your body is built from ingredients that you put in your mouth. If you consume ingredients that promote health, you will in time become a healthier person. If you choose, on the other hand, to consume ingredients that destroy your health, you will, of course, experience that outcome as well, and you will end up being diagnosed with various chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, mental depression, or heart disease.
It's also interesting to note in all of this that there are actually very few ingredients that need to be targeted and outlawed from the food supply in order to protect the health of consumers. Those ingredients include refined white flour, refined sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, sodium nitrate, homogenized milkfats, aspartame, MSG, and artificial food colors.
If these ingredients were made illegal tomorrow, and were emptied out of the food chain in a matter of weeks or months, we would see an immediate drop in chronic disease and obesity across the United States. Healthcare costs would plummet, quality of life would skyrocket, and people would be healthier, happier and even experience better moods and mental health. I believe that one day these ingredients will be banned from the human food supply, and there may in fact be massive lawsuits against food manufacturers someday for choosing to use these ingredients even while an enormous amount of evidence clearly shows the detrimental health effects of such ingredients.
But once again, the food and beverage industries insist that there is no such thing as a harmful food, and therefore there is no such thing as a harmful ingredient, either. From their point of view, you could insert lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic into any food product and eat it without consequence. There's no such thing as lead poisoning, the food industry seems to be saying. There's no such thing as mercury poisoning either, and in their minds, there's no such thing as obesity caused by foods, soft drinks, or food ingredients. Those parts of the food industry that continue to deny the clear links between chronic disease and their food products are nothing short of of criminals intent on a program of slow genocide..
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