You have seen it a thousand times and more. The "Low in Fat" label on the boxes of convenience foods that litter the aisles of the grocery store. You have also very likely seen "Low in Sugar" and I talked about reading ingredient lists in the section on carbs. What you have to understand is that these labels are not put on the package in order to keep you healthy. These labels are nothing more than a marketing tool used to lure people into a false sense of security about the level of health the product meets.
Here it is. Are you ready? You CANNOT get fat simply from eating fat! If you want to know why we get fat, go back and re-read the previous section on carbs and insulin. Having said this, there are good fats and bad fats and you should know the difference. First, let's discuss saturated and unsaturated fats and then we can talk about nitrates and how they affect the food you eat.
Another label these days is "low in trans fat" or "no trans fat." What is trans fat? It is hydrogenated fat, a man- made fat, and it is the worst kind of fat to put into your body. Hydrogenation is a process by which the unsaturated fats in oils are converted into saturated fats in order to solidify them and make them into saturated fat substitutes. This is what has allowed us to create margarine, a supposedly healthy substitute for butter. This process also increases the shelf life of foods, which in turn increases the profit margin for the companies.
Saturated fats are the fats found in meats, especially red meats. Unsaturated fats are those found in fish and plant-based foods such as nuts, seeds, legumes, avocados, and other fatty fruits (with the exception of coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil, which contain saturated fats). When you are getting your protein intake during the Abs on the Go diet, it is a good idea to get it from a variety of sources and keep the saturated fats that are associated with nitrates to a minimum.
This brings about a discussion of nitrates. Nitrates are used as a preservative in many cured meats such as:
Bacon
Ham
Salami
Bologna
Pepperoni (yes, that means pepperoni pizza)
Fresh meats are not generally preserved with nitrates or nitrites, so they are fair game. However, the nitrates in processed meats preserve colour and keep bacterial levels down, particularly the levels of bacteria that cause Botulism. Nitrate itself is harmless to the body, but when it is heated it can turn into nitrite, which can then turn into nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are a very powerful cancer-causing chemical that, once in the body, can do incredible damage.
The nitrates that are used are salts, generally sodium nitrates. Salt has long been used as a preservative and that in and of itself is not a problem. But people like their aesthetics and decided that they really wanted their meat to retain its pink colour. Certain salts, the ones with nitrates in them, would preserve the pink colour in the meats during the processing of the meat. This nitrate, which converts to nitrite, also gives the meat a special, cured flavour.