Nitrates, Nitrites....No Way #41

I am going all the way back to my first two posts. For at least 2 years prior to that, I had been considering changing my eating habits.  Based on some reading and personal thoughts, I wasn't convinced our physical make up was such that we were  meant to consume meat.  I  believe we were natural vegetarians in the sense we ate what nature provided us. Be it fruits, vegetation, wild vegetables, nuts, and over time we evolved ourselves into becoming meat eaters.  I knew I was eating too much meat.  Processed meats, chicken, beef, pork, I really was out of control when it came to eating meat.  And then for some sudden reason, unknown to me,  I lost my desire to eat meat. I found that  eating meat had become more of an addiction and stopping was not going to be easy.  I think what pushed me to the point of making the change was I knew the chemicals in meat, in particular processed meat, were not good for me.  You can argue how wrong I am in my thinking our digestive system was not meant for us to consume meat.  I could be wrong there.  But I do know I am not wrong about the chemicals we take in from our eating meat. We might as well sit down and munch on a bag of fertilizer at Home Depot as to eat  hot dogs, bologna, bacon, and so forth.  And I am not criticizing anyone for eating what they want to eat.  I still to this day would like a couple of hot dogs, and a ham sandwich stacked 3 inches high garnished with bacon.  But I can't do it.  Why am I going over this, because I read an article about nitrates.

Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrites.  Each is used as a meat preservative, and in the making of processed meats.  They are closely related and used in curing or preserving meats.  Nitrates are used in bologna, bacon, hot dogs, sausages, as examples, to preserve the color.  Pink or red rather than gray. They inhibit botulism, and retard the development of rancidity.  They are thought to cause certain cancers, and damage your blood vessels, making them more likely to harden.  Anybody for a little ammonia nitrate sprinkled over those spam and vienna sausage appetizers?

Very briefly, doing some research on this I came across "Aspartame."  It is a chemical used in artificial sweeteners brands such as Equal, and NutraSweet. It is used in over 6,000 consumer foods and diet sodas.  There is a lot of conflicting medical research and dangers associated with it's use.  If interested, I suggest you look it up on the internet.  Also in fairness, go to aspartame.net to get their side of it.

I continue to look forward to and exercise 5 or 6 days per week.  I have made a couple of minor changes to my workout routine.  I found a book with 100 different workouts with detailed instructions, and illustrations.  Something else I like about it is that each exercise describes what muscles or muscle groups your working on.  And if it involves a strength machine you're not familiar with, you now feel more comfortable about using it the first time.

Next post we will talk more about staying active and exercising.