"cybercat" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Peter A" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6560121.stm
>>
>
> Thanks, Peter, that is really useful information, as I am an ex-smoker and
> was diagnosed with asthma a few years ago. Happily, Advair controls it so
> it is likely just asthma and not emphesema--yet.
>
> The material in the article does not surprise me--I've never been
> fat-phobic, but nitrites scare me. We've learned to enjoy our eggs without
> bacon and to have our lucious roasted picnic ham three times a year at the
> most. My big weakness is sausage in bean soups, and I can find that made
> fresh without nitrites.
>
> Another concern: someone, a biochemist IIRC, told me that when they fed
> rats aspartame and nitrites, 9 out of 10 of them developed cancer in short
> order. He then pointed out that a ham sandwich and a diet coke was what an
> awful lot of people have for lunch. Scary.
>

Some years back, PBS ran a documentary about doctors hunting for the causes
of strange cancer clusters. In one example, the Chinese government, in a
rare admission of defeat, invited some American doctors to a small village
where the rate of esophageal cancer was simply outrageous. They found that
the villagers had a traditional pickled cabbage thing they made every year.
In the pickling vats, a foam would develop which they considered to be a
delicacy. Turns out it was loaded with nitrites. Once the researchers put an
end to the consumption of that stuff, the cancer rate dropped precipitously.
Very interesting.