Have you ever heard of Sodium Nitrite?

I had, sort of, but didn’t really know much about it. After reading this article I am on high alert. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Sodium Nitrite is a preservative chemical added to processed meats to turn them bright red, thus giving the look of freshness. A good rule of thumb is – anything that’s fake is not good for you. Artificial freshness? Yuck. The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has named the carcinogenic chemical unsafe for human consumption in any amount.

So where will you find Sodium Nitrite? Here are some packaged meats that contain it -
-Beef jerky
-Packaged lunch meats
-Hot dogs
-Bacon
-Sausage
-Frozen meals and pizzas containing meat
-Canned soups & raviolis containing meat

But it doesn’t stop at the grocery store… anywhere you eat out (restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals) that serves previously frozen, canned, or packaged meats will contain sodium nitrite.

I don’t know about you, but I find that incredibly alarming. I don’t even want to think about how much of this crap I’ve ingested over the years. When I shopped for lunch meat this week I was shocked to find that even the turkey and chicken contained it! So what are we supposed to eat for lunch? Justin and I are working on researching this further right now. We are thinking if we start buying from a butcher instead of buying packaged meats that we will be able to avoid this nasty chemical. Obviously buying organic is the best choice, we’re looking into that as well.