Nitrates are known as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the nutrition world due to their simultaneously beneficial and harmful properties. We are often told that processed meats contain nitrates and should be avoided. On the other hand, it is emphasized that they should also look for vegetables such as beets and spinach, which naturally contain nitrates, and the various recommendations can be confusing to the average person.
Nitrates are known as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the nutrition world due to their simultaneously beneficial and harmful properties. We are often told that processed meats contain nitrates and should be avoided. On the other hand, it is emphasized that they should also look for vegetables such as beets and spinach, which naturally contain nitrates, and the various recommendations can be confusing to the average person.
Nitrates are known in the world of nutrition as the characters of English literature, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, due to their simultaneously beneficial and harmful properties.
We are often told that processed meats contain nitrates and should be avoided. On the other hand, it is emphasized that vegetables such as beets and spinach are healthy because they contain nitrates naturally, and these are two different foods. The recommendations leave the common man confused.
Nitrates actually occur naturally in our bodies, but simple compounds made of nitrogen and oxygen are found in many foods and even in the water we drink.
Although most of these nitrates are excreted through urine, some of them are absorbed by our bodies.
Before we get into what foods they are found in and how they affect our health, let’s try to explain to you in simple terms what nitrates are.
Nitrate is a polyatomic ion (ION) or compound. These ions, called nitrates, are abundant in salt, are found naturally in many foods, and are used to process or preserve foods chemically.
In the language of chemical formula, it is written NO- ₃.
Bacteria in the deeper layers of both our tongue and stomach convert them into nitrates.
It should be noted that both nitrates and nitrites are similar, but the only difference between them is the number of oxygen atoms (ATOMS) found in them.
What foods contain nitrates?
Catherine Bondono, a senior researcher in nutrition and health at Australia’s Edith Cowan University, explains that we get most of our nitrates from vegetables.
“The main source of dietary nitrate is plant-based foods, which make up about 70 to 80 percent of our daily intake,” she says.
Catherine adds that 10 to 15 percent of nitrates come from meat, whether natural (nitrates) or used to preserve processed meats.
And surprisingly, drinking water can also contain nitrates.
Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce (lettuce), kale, beets, and celery, are among the best natural sources of nitrates, and these natural nitrates are believed to have health benefits.
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Which nitrates are good for you?
Catherine says there is substantial evidence that plant-based nitrates improve heart health and may reduce the risk of stroke.
For example, the natural nitrates found in beetroot juice can significantly lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.
This may also be because the nitrite found in vegetables can be converted into nitric oxide in our body, which dilates the narrowed blood vessels and, in turn, lowers the blood pressure.
However, research has mixed results on the relationship between nitrates and heart health.
Although the list of heart health benefits of eating a diet rich in green leafy vegetables is long, some studies show that nitrates have no significant effect.
For example, a large-scale study looking at the effects of nitrates on heart disease risk found that the highest intake of plant-based nitrates (about two servings of green leafy vegetables per day) also reduced the risk of heart disease. Don’t be helpful in reducing the risk of
Researchers faced a lack of long-term evidence linking natural nitrate-providing green leafy vegetables to reducing heart disease risk.
One explanation for why nitrates in vegetables are good for our health, or at least not harmful, maybe that vegetables high in nitrates are also high in vitamin C and other antioxidants, which Nitrates have been found to help prevent damaging factors.
Why are some nitrates harmful to health?
Nitrates and nitrites added to processed meats to inhibit bacterial growth have harmful effects on the body.
Despite the potential health benefits of naturally occurring nitrites in vegetables, nitrites and nitrates added to processed meats to inhibit bacterial growth are widely considered to have harmful effects on the body.
It’s not necessarily that these chemicals themselves cause health risks, but sometimes, the molecules they make after we eat them can affect our bodies differently.
Especially when the cancer-causing compounds N-nitroso (N-nitroso) react with fragments of proteins left over from our digestion.
According to the Harvard Tichin School of Public Health in the US, ‘by adding nitrites or nitrites to meat during the (chemical) preservation process or by smoking, possibly N_nitrosocompounds, (NOC) and Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) can cause the formation of cancer-causing chemicals.’
So, scientists have repeatedly called on the UK government to ban the use of nitrates in processed meat due to concerns about the potentially carcinogenic properties of these compounds.
The latest effort by scientists comes from research from Queen’s University Belfast, which says that eating processed meat containing these chemicals is 75% more likely to develop cancerous tumors than eating foods without nitrates.
But this argument is not so clear. Some scientists concluded in 2017 that the consumption of nitrates in meat products is of ‘some concern’ for our health.
Although processed meat has been linked to an increased risk of colon cancer and possibly stomach cancer, experts warn that these risks are not just from nitrates and nitrites but also from salt and saturated fat content.
How to get a healthy nitrite-rich diet?
A significant body of research shows that a diet rich in vegetables and low in processed meat is beneficial to our health.
Focus on adding a variety of plant-based foods to our diet, says Kathryn, especially leafy greens (spinach, various greens, kale), root vegetables (beets) and other nitrate-rich foods. Plants like celery and radish.
“These natural sources of nitrates not only provide other essential nutrients but are thought to be good for overall heart health.”
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