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Say NO to BBQ Dinners!

Sorry, man! I'll pass.

Nitrosamine carcinogens and the risk of stomach cancer would need a bowl full of brocolli to go with those overcooked smokies.

Also ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) reduces the formation of nitrosamines from forming.

The vegetable with lots of Vitamin C in it is red peppers.

So eat veggies with your BBQ dishes, peoples!

"About 1970 it was discovered that ascorbic acid inhibits nitrosamine formation. Consequently, the addition of 550 ppm of ascorbic acid is now required in the manufacture of cured meat in the U.S. Actually, most cured meat manufacturers add erythorbic acid (an isomer of ascorbic acid) rather than ascorbic acid. Although erythorbic acid has reduced vitamin C activity, it is as effective as ascorbic acid in inhibiting nitrosamine formation and is also cheaper than vitamin C. Another antioxidant, alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), is added to some cured meats to inhibit nitrosamine formation. As a result of these strategies, there are now significantly lower levels of nitrosamines in fried bacon and other cured meats than there were some years ago. Ascorbic acid, erythorbic acid, and alpha-tocopherol inhibit nitrosamine formation due to their oxidation-reduction properties. For example, when ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, nitrous anhydride, a potent nitrosating agent formed from sodium nitrite, is reduced to nitric oxide, which is not a nitrosating agent. The discovery that ascorbic acid can inhibit nitrosamine formation was serendipitous."

1 comment:

Sageb1 said...

Source of quote:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w00/nitrosamine.html