Hello Group! I noticed that many of you include pepperoni in your lists of favorite snacks and I wanted to clarify the question of nitrates. I've just returned from the grocery store where I bought some pepperoni and while the carb and sugar counts were 0, it does include nitrates in the ingredients.

Any knowledge to share regarding this? It's awfully difficult to find ham or bacon without nitrates also.

Do I dare eat pepperoni??

P.S. I've found so many recipes and ideas for creating new recipes on this site! Can't wait to do some cooking this weekend. For me, it's all about having things on hand and well stocked. I'm on Day 5 and feeling good!

This is my second time on Atkins. The fisrt time I was on it I lost alot of weight and felt great. I understand that nitrates are not the healthiest thing BUT...I ate cheese with pepperoni almost every night. I was one of my favorite snacks. The one thing I couldn't eat...was pickels. What I'm getting at is...different foods bother different people. I can eat deli meats...but a friend of mine can't. She can live on pickels...and they make me swell like a balloon. If you are finding that you are stalling out with your weight loss...try slicing them...then nuking them to make pepperoni chips. By doing this most of the fat and nitrates are removed.

This is my second time around at this. After a bad accident, then throwing away my smokes...I gained some weight back.

I wish you loads of luck...have fun with this woe!!

Glad to hear you're still doing ok DW. I know some people won't touch anything with nitrates. I can't help myself, I eat ham, bacon , pastrami and some pepperoni. I tend to go by Atkins' first book (Ilike it better, you can eat more stuff) I am still losing this way, others may not. It really depends on the person. Some don't eat them because nitrates arn't good for you, period, nothing to do with loss. All you can do is try, and see if you stop losing. You might want to keep some nuts on hand. They are a nice quick grab it kinda food. If you get nuts in the shell, you will eat a lot less of them. My favorite are hazelnuts.

Well, good luck!

cimart

Why are nitrates bad? I must have missed that in the book...

I couldn't find it in the book..so I looked it up in the dictionary. In a nutshell...Nitrates equal salt. Although I bodies do need salt..I think tooo much may hinder our goals.

The newest Adlkins book recommends staying away from processed meats because they include sugars and nitrates. I dunno. I agree with the earlier post that ultimately it's probably one of those things that each person has to evaluate in terms of it being a trigger.

I MUST go get this book. I wonder how many other things he changed.

I must also keep in mind that I ate cream, cheese...and tons of salami and pepperoni my first time on this....so did millions of people. We all lost. On the other hand, I guess these are not the healthiest of things to eat..lol. Do you all think he is changing this stuff because of the publicity? It is hard to promote a healthy way of eating when we are allowed deli meats....lol.

Thanks for the heads up!

Cinderella...(worked to hard and under paid)

I think nitrates are like MSG or sodium. Some people are sensitive, some aren't. A lot of folks have done well with bacon and pepperoni in their diet. If you find you're sensitive to it, then mail me the pepperoni

I'm not positive, but I thought Atkins said to limit nitrates because some studies have shown them to be a carcinogen.

Some information here... don't know anything about the validity of the source. I just googled

http://www.theingredientstore.com/f...ion.pl?read=782

-Bleue

Hi Donald,

Nitrates are a suspect carcinogen. I wish I could find a recent article I read that showed you need to consumer a LOT in order for your risk to go up.

I confess I have three slices of bacon for brekkie every day, and have done for nearly a year. I also have pepperoni and other stuff like that on occasion but don't go whole hog with it (pardon the pun).

Certainly doesn't seem to have interfered with the weight loss. As to the dangers, I am tackling one health issue at a time. For now, the bacon stays. I used to go out of my way to find nitrate-free stuff, but don't bother any more. (On a side note - the lower sodium bacon sometimes has no sugar.)

To minimize the nitrate issue - you're advised not to scorch the bacon or get it too crispy. I cook mine in the oven to avoid this, and often will give it a rinse with water midway through cooking. This helps a bit, and doesn't affect the taste at all.

Not sure if that helps at all on your "to pepperoni or not to pepperoni" issue.

There is spanking new research that says nitrates might not be as bad as previously thought...in fact they feel it may be beneficial.

Woo hoo glad to hear... I think it sfunny when an OLD post like this resurfaces!!!

I LOVE pepperoni and usually eat it EVERYDAY. I have had no problems with it, nor am I really worried about the nitrates.

pepperoni has never caused me a problem, and i go through spurts where i eat it non stop for days straight.
jeannie

I eat pepperoni all the time and dont mind. I have had nitrite free pepperoni Applegate farms brand. They all have sugar in some form. I get whatever the supermarket has around. I look for one with as little junk as possible but they sometimes only have one or 2 brands.

I usually drink lots of water and from what I read about nitrites I am not too worried. I am more concerned about aflatoxin in peanuts.