I've been eating a lot of bacon recently and I'm slightly concerned about all the nitrates. Packaged bacon and sausage (two of my favorite things to grab for snacks) have nitrates, but if I get some kind of ground meat from the butcher and make it into sausage patties, I shouldn't have to worry about the nitrates, right?

You can do that or you can get nitrate free bacon and sausage from a whole foods store (aka health food store). It's a little more but not too much.

The opinions are nitrates are mixed. Some people say they are not that bad, except in massive quantities. The concern is that they can convert to nitrosamines in the body which are carcinogenic.

You should be more concerned about the nitrosamines in your cigarettes, though, if you smoke.

Some people even say the incidence of Ecoli infection and similar have increased since manufacturers began cutting back on nitrates due to consumer demand.

I think its one of those things where you have to do the reading and decide for yourself.

I'm a smoked meat fan, and I love my daily bacon, so I decided I would be too unbearable if I gave up all my bad habits.

Eat somthing with Vit C along with it. It prevents the conversion into notrosamine. A slice of tomato is enough to do the job.

I've always taken my first 1000mg vitamin C tablet of the day right after the bacon [breakfast] do you think that would be the same? I don't eat tomatoes on induction nor really any vitamin C that i know of at breakfast and have no options.....because am staying on induction indefinitely