Maybe, but in terms of drinking water in a predominantly omnivore country, does this distinction matter? We have one of the highest bowel/colon/rectum cancer rates in the world, which is linked to nitrates in drinking water.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

They form from curing meat in super high levels for a long time. If the implication is that we can't consume nitrates with meat, we should probably be avoiding combining vegetables and meat in the same meal.

Perhaps this just reflects low inhake of vitamin c - which prevents nitrosamines from forming

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Confirmed in above paper:

Espejo-Herrera (2016) found when diets were high in vitamin C there was no statistically significant increase in risk of colon cancer from elevated nitrate levels in water

[–] Dave 1 points 1 year ago

Processed meat is one of very few foods on the WHOs list of things that almost definitely cause cancer.

Interesting that vitamin C protects against nitrates. Does that mean we should eat our (high in vitamin C) vegetables with meat?