nitrites
Synonyms
Examples
(Streetwalker to friend) First he wants me to put on bunny ears and patent leather shoes, then he wants me to eat a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. I go, "Mister, you are so sick. I don't do nitrites.
Although nitrites are the nitrogen compound chiefly used in meat curing, nitrates are used in certain specialty curing processes where a long release of nitrite from parent nitrate stores is needed.
A small number of recreational inhalant drugs are pharmaceutical products that are used illicitly, such as anesthetics (ether and nitrous oxide) and volatile anti- angina drugs ( alkyl nitrites ).
Actually, I did find a credible pubmed reference to the reduction of hypertension due to nitrates and nitrites.
Nitrosamines are found in some food, and may be produced by some cooking processes from proteins or from nitrites used as food preservatives; cured meat such as bacon has been found to be carcinogenic, with links to colon cancer.
I mentioned that absent co-administration of a carcinogenic nitrosamine precursor, nitrates and nitrites aren’t a problem.