Here's something I've never seen properly explained nutrition-wise that's been bugging me since I took organic chemistry nearly 20 years ago.
Eat bacon that has nitrates. They transform into nitrosamine, a carcinogen.
Eat beets that have nitrates. They transform into nitric oxide, which helps with blood pressure.
Same nitrates, why the different result?
Looks up Wikipedia...
Are you confusing nitrites (NO2-) and nitrates (NO3-)?
Nitrosamines are produced by the reaction of nitrous acid (HNO2) - usually created by the protonation of a nitrite - and secondary amines or other nitrosyl sources.
The review by Jakszyn, Paula; Gonzalez, Carlos (2006). "Nitrosamine and related food intake and gastric and oesophageal cancer risk: A systematic review of the epidemiological evidence". World Journal of Gastroenterology 12 (27) supports a "positive association between nitrite and nitrosamine intake and gastric cancer, between meat and processed meat intake and gastric cancer and oesophageal cancer, and between preserved fish, vegetable and smoked food intake and gastric cancer, but is not conclusive."
Also according to Wikipedia:
Nitrate ingestion rapidly increases the plasma nitrate concentration by a factor of 2 to 3, and this elevated nitrate concentration can be maintained for more than 2 weeks. Increased plasma nitrate enhances the production of nitric oxide, NO. Nitric oxide is a physiological signalling molecule which intervenes in, among other things, regulation of muscle blood flow and mitochondrial respiration.
The two areas of concerns about the toxicity of nitrates are the following:
- nitrate reduced by the microbial activity of nitrate reducing bacteria is the precursor of nitrite in water and in the lower gastrointestinal tract. Nitrite is a precursor to carcinogenic nitrosamines
- via the formation of nitrite, nitrate is implicated in methemoglobinemia, a disorder of haemoglobin in red blood cells, especially affecting infants and toddlers from ingesting nitrates in drinking water
By the way, as nitrous acid, nitrate ions and nitrite ions do not contain carbon, we're not dealing specifically with organic chemistry, but also inorganic chemistry.
