So I was reading on natural nitrates and nitrites and apparently root vegetables have quite a lot of nitrates. During cooking, they convert into nitrites which isn’t a problem but when combined with protein and then heated, they create nitrosamines. This got me wondering all the applications of this scenario in cooking and the biggest one I can think of is stews. A stew is basically meat (protein) and vegetables (nitrites) slowly cooking over a long period of time which means they are chock full of nitrosamines, right? Do stews then increase the rate of cancer? This reminds me of cured and processed meats which also have the same issue with added sodium nitrates.
This also applies to leftovers as vegetables and meat combine and are reheated, are leftovers also bad?
But in the end, I must be missing something because no one is advocating to not eat stews or leftovers so can someone shed some light on the science of this?
I think the dangerous compounds are made when meat is heated up to very high temperature, like cooking in a pan. You could be at 350 F or 450 F degrees. However, in a stew, it will never get above boiling temp (212 F), and I don’t think that is creating carcinogenic compounds.
I’m pressing X to doubt here.
Please cite your sources here as certain areas of the world rely on stews to survive and there would surely have been a correlation which would have been noticed by now if what you said is entirely true?