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nitrosation reactions that convert nitrites into The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at
carcinogenic nitrosamines. Wise Traditions and other conferences, Vice President of the Weston A.
It’s obviously important to avoid eating Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award.
readymade sources of nitrosamines, of the kind To share your soy story or get a Special Report on recovering from soy
that occur in soy protein isolates, non-fat dry and dealing with soy allergies visit www.wholesoystory.com. She will be
milk, and other products that have undergone a speaker at Wise Traditions 2012.
acid washes, flame drying or high temperature
spray-drying processes. 68-70 People are also ex- REFERENCES
posed to nitrosamines from some types of beer, 1. Neuman, Jeannette. Vegetarian Doctors Go Whole Hog to Burn Bacon in Iowa. Wall Street
Journal, Feb. 18, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020479240457722
cigarettes, nipples of baby bottles and the rubber 7201273665554.html
used with braces in orthodontics. 71,72 In other 2. Harvard School of Public Health. 2012 Releases. Red Meat Consumption Linked to In-
words, nitrosamines don’t just come from cured creased Risk of Total, Cardiovascular, and Cancer Mortality http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/
news/press-releases/2012-releases/red-meat-cardiovascular-cancer-mortality.html?__utm
meats. Furthermore, the nitrosamine content in a=1.1943123867.1332886318.1332886318.1332886318.1&__utmb=1.2.10.1332886318&__
cured meats has gone way down over the past utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1332886318.1.1.utmcsr=hsph.harvard.edu|utmccn=(re
ferral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/news/press-releases/2010-releases/processed-meats-
few decades. unprocessed-heart-disease-diabetes.html&__utmv=-&__utmk=127139469
72
As for environmental damage from nitrates, 3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22412075
this problem comes from the land use abuses of 4. Taubes, Gary. Science, pseudoscience, nutritional epidemiology, and meat. March 14, 2012.
http://garytaubes.com/2012/03/science-pseudoscience-nutritional-epidemiology-and-meat/
factory farming. 5. Harcombe, Zoë. Red meat & mortality & the usual bad science. March 13, 2012. http://
www.zoeharcombe.com/2012/03/red-meat-mortality-the-usual-bad-science/
6. Minger, Denise. Will eating red meat kill you? March 14, 2012. http://www.marksdaily-
BRING HOME THE BACON apple.com/will-eating-red-meat-kill-you/#ixzz1pVwS4zDd
Then why do so many health experts con- 7. Enig, Mary G. Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutriton
demn bacon and other cured meats because of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol (Silver Spring, MD, Bethesda Press, 2000. p 135.) Note: Dr
Enig’s figures are for the fatty acid composition of lard, not bacon fat, but the percentages
of their nitrite content? Well, why do fats and should be very close. Percentages of fat will also vary according to the animal’s diet and
cholesterol still get a bum rap? The reason is 8. lifestyle.
Koga T, Terao J. "Antioxidant Activity of a Novel Phosphatidyl Derivative of Vitamin E in
bad studies and worse publicity, with the latest Lard and Its Model System" J Ag Food Chem, 1994, 42 (6), 1291–1294. This study looks
shoddy work out of Harvard a prime example. at lard, but likely applies to bacon fat as well.
According to Dr. Bryan, the body of studies 9. http://www.ajcn.org/content/88/2/558S.full#R7 Regarding the USDA database and the
vitamin D foods, Dr. Sylvia Onusic notes: “The USDA first published data on the vitamin
shows only a “weak association” with evidence D content of foods in a provisional table in 1991, a table that did not include lard or bacon
that is “inconclusive.” As he and his colleagues fat, and issued updates in http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Other/vit_d99.pdf.
Since 2002, and most recently in September 2007, the USDA has incorporated these data
wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nu- and their updates into the annual public releases of the USDA’s NNDB for Standard Refer-
trition, “This paradigm needs revisiting in the ence. http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/ndl . However, these databases have incomplete
face of undisputed health benefits of nitrite- and vitamin D content information, with data available for only 594 of 7519 foods in the 2007
release. The sources of vitamin D information in the database include analytic values,
nitrate-enriched diets.” 73 label declarations for many processed foods, literature values, and calculated values based
on ingredient composition."
So what’s the last word on America’s favorite 10. Food Composition Database for Epidemiological Studies in Italy (Banca Dati di Compo-
meat? Indulge bacon lust freely (just buy care- sizione degli Alimenti per Studi Epidemiologici in Italia – BDA) published by the European
fully), know that the science is catching up, the Institute of Oncology. http://www.ieo.it/bda2008/homepage.aspx
media lag behind, and, our ancestors most likely 11. FAX from Mary G. Enig, PhD, to Sally Fallon. USDA Data on Vitamin A, Vitamin D and
Cholesterol, February 1997.
got it right. 12. http://www.ajcn.org/content/88/2/558S.full#R7
13. FAX from Mary G. Enig, PhD, to Sally Fallon, February 1997.
14. Mayer J and WA Krehl. "The relation of diet composition and vitamin C to vitamin A
The author thanks Dr. Sylvia Onusic for research deficiency." J Nutrition, 1948, 35, 523.
assistance in preparing this article. 15. Kaunitz H, Slanetz CA. "A possible new factor distilled from lard." Fed Proc., 1950, 9,335.
16. Kaunitz H and CA Slanetz. "An unknown factor with vitamin A activity distilled from
lard." J Nutrition, 1950, 42, 375. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/42/3/375.full.pdf
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty 17. Kaunitz H and CA Slanetz. "Relation of vitamin A and 'lard factor' to disease caused by
rancid lard." J. Nutr, 1950, 75, 322.
Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outra- 18. Herb SF, Riemenschneider HF, Kaunitz H, Slanetz CA. Nature of the “vitamin A-like
geously and humorously debunk nutritional factor in lard.” J Nutr. 1953 http://jn.nutrition.org/content/51/3/393.full.pdf
myths. A popular guest on radio and television, 19. Lowe, JS and R. A. Morton. Studies in Vitamin A: The Vitamin A replacing effect of
lard. 1953, 55, 681-686. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1269380/pdf/
she has been on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View biochemj01091-0150.pdf.
from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and will 20. The cholesterol debate is thoroughly covered on the WAPF website www.westonaprice.
appear this summer on PBS Healing Quest. Dr org, on Chris Masterjohn’s website www.cholesterol-and-health.com and in Gary Taubes’
book Good Calories, Bad Calories (Knopf, 2007).
Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: 21. Satin, Morton. Salt and our health. http://www.westonaprice.org/vitamins-and-minerals/
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