nitrates

They say this is caused by nitrates, but aren't nitrates what are bad in things like hotdogs?

They detected some nitrates or nitrites, I forget which (or what those exactly mean).

Yeah, the speculation that nitrates in bacon fat would somehow be unhealthy was a bit weird too.

There's some things they screwed up on, nitrates aren't real good for you, but limited amounts of alcohol is.

Supermarket burger patties all have nitrates to cure/preserve them which turn into nitrosamines when cooked (carcinogenic).

Uncured bacon obviously exists and doesn't have nitrates/nitrites (even stealth ones), but it probably isn't meaningfully more healthy than cured bacon.

We regulate by concentration, but the danger would be in the amount of nitrates consumed.

Another example of magical thinking; > Nitrates are also used as fertilizers in agriculture.

Your farmers over-water their fields, washing out the nitrates into the sea, leaving the fields useless for growing crops and killing coral.

Weed is often fertilized with nitrates, and trace amounts of these elements are present in your sweat, in your pee, and so on.

More importantly, it creates a supply of nitrates, which we can turn into nitric acid and other useful industrial chemicals.

I'd say the big difference between a hotdog and what we ate a long time ago is probably all the hotdog's nitrates.

This reminds me about people who are fanatical about avoiding nitrates in Bacon, not realizing that the "natural" celery salt added to Bacon means that actually the expensive bacon sold in Whole Foods actually has more nitrates than conventional bacon.

Hell, pretty much any bacon, sausage or cured products advertised as "Nitrate-free" or as "No Nitrated added" are relying on the fact that you think Nitrates are bad while still adding nitrates.

Instead of adding Sodium Nitrate to their products they remain "all natural" and "organic" by adding celery juice, which is high in nitrates.

Assuming produce and not "processed food-like substances" the farm uses diesel to run the tractor and other gear, some coal powered electricity in the greenhouse, fertilizers made of phosphates dug out of the ground (what to do when they run out?) and nitrates made by the haber process outta lots of natgas.

Nitrates aren't harmful in themselves - it's the Nitrosamines that they can produce under certain conditions, which are very definitely carcinogenic.

Nitrates exist in fertilizer - and thats what folks make bombs out of.

For example, products that like to villainize both Nitrates/Nitrites and MSG.