Is bacon good or is spinach bad?
Channel: NutritionFacts.org
Date: 2012-02-17

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DESCRIPTION: If the nitrates in vegetables such as greens are health-promoting because they can be turned into nitrites and then nitric oxide inside our bodies, what about the nitrites added to cured meats such as bacon, ham, and hot dogs? Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/is-bacon-good-or-is-spinach-bad/ and I'll try to answer it! In response to a CDC study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22277554) linking Spam consumption with diabetes, the president of the American Meat Institute recently defended processed meat (http://www.themeatsite.com/meatnews/16686/processed-meats-a-healthy-part-of-balanced-diet), stating that "93 percent of human nitrite intake comes from vegetables and human saliva -- not from cured meats. If nitrite were the issue, then one would think the vegetables would be the cause of the diabetes, yet no one is suggesting that association." This is the first of the 8 videos on figuring out this apparent conundrum that will close out my 3-week series on the cardioprotective (see Hearts Shouldn't Skip A Beat - http://nutritionfacts.org/video/hearts-shouldnt-skip-a-beet/) and athletic performance-enhancing benefits (see Doping With Beet Juice - http://nutritionfacts.org/video/doping-with-beet-juice/) of nitrate-rich vegetables. For a review of the relationship between nitrates and nitrites, see Priming the Proton Pump (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/priming-the-proton-pump/). So far there have only been a few precautionary notes (see Asparagus Pee - http://nutritionfacts.org/video/asparagus-pee/). What about this nitrite issue? As I say at the end of the video, stay tuned! In the meantime, I have a few videos on processed meat (http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/processed-meat/) and hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects that you can check out (http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/).

Please also check out my associated blog post http://nutritionfacts.org/blog/2012/03/22/using-greens-to-improve-athletic-performance/!

Image Credit: Glane23 and Renee Comet for the National Cancer Institute via Wikimedia Commons.

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