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Did the doctor say, "Don't eat vegetables"... nitrites left in meats, after cooking, are usually less than 100 Ppm...[/h3][h3] [/h3][h3]Nitrates in Vegetables[/h3]
The following information about Nitrates in vegetables was published by MAFF, Department of Health and the Scottish Executive before April 1st 2000 when the Food Standards Agency was established. Number 158, September 1998. MAFF UK - NITRATE IN VEGETABLES: Vegetables contain higher concentrations of Nitrate than other foods and make a major contribution to dietary intake. A survey of vegetables for sale in supermarkets was carried out in 1997 and 1998 to provide up-to-date information on Nitrate concentrations, to assess the health implications for UK consumers and also to inform negotiations on a review of the European Commission Regulation (EC) No. 194/97 (which sets maximum levels for Nitrate in lettuce and spinach).
A study on the effects of cooking on Nitrate concentrations in vegetables was also carried out to provide further refinements for estimating dietary exposure. The vegetables were tested and the mean Nitrate concentrations found were as listed in the table on the right. For comparison the permissible amount of Nitrate in comminuted meat products (sausages) is 1718 mg/kg. If one ate 1/4 lb smoked sausage, the ingoing Nitrate would be 430 ppm. That would probably account for less Nitrates than a dinner served with potatoes and spinach.
In the 1920’s, the government allowed the addition of 10 lbs. of Nitrate to 100 gallons of water (7 lbs. allowed today). The problem was that only about one quarter of the meat plants adhered to those limits and many plants added much more, even between 70 and 90 pounds. There was no control and as a result the customer was eating a lot of Nitrates.
| Vegatable | Nitrate in mg/kg |
| spinach | 1631 |
| beetroot | 1211 |
| lettuces | 1051 |
| cabbages | 338 |
| potatoes | 155 |
| swedes | 118 |
| carrots | 97 |
| califlowers | 86 |
| brussel sprouts | 59 |
| onions | 48 |
| tomatoes | 17 |
Cooking by boiling reduced Nitrate concentrations in most of the vegetables tested by up to 75 percent. Frying and baking did not affectNitrate concentrations in potatoes but frying caused increases in levels in onions. Dietary intakes of mean and upper range (97.5 percentile) consumers of these vegetables are 104 mg/day and 151 mg/day, respectively. These are below the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for nitrate of 219 mg/day for a 60 kg adult set by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee for Food (SCF). There are therefore no health concerns for consumers. Ten years later in 2008 another British study concluded: “Our research suggests that drinking beetroot juice, or consuming other Nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system, and might also be an additional approach that one could take in the modern-day battle against rising blood pressure,” says Amrita Ahluwalia, PhD, one of the study’s researchers. Ahluwalia is a professor at the William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and The London School of Medicine.
