I guess I have just itched a lot for my entire life, so I just scratch and don’t really think about it. But it was recently brought to my attention by someone, and I realized that I am scratching constantly. Like all over my body. I’ll scratch my leg, then my head itches, then the back of my hand, then my cheek, then my arm, and so on and so on, every few seconds. I might scratch 10 or 20 spots within a minute. I think I might stop scratching if I’m really focused on something, but if I start thinking about my itching, then it just keeps happening. And like I said, I think this has been going on for my entire life, but I never really paid much attention to it. Is this normal?
FYI, a whole lot of “uncured” meats, at least in the US, are just kind of using loopholes. Often there’s a little asterisk next to the word “uncured”
And if you follow that asterisk to the bottom of the back side of the package or wherever they decided to hide it in small print you’ll see it says something like “contains no added nitrites or nitrates except those naturally occurring in celery powder or other natural ingredients”
And spoiler alert, celery has kind of a lot of nitates and nitrites.
And while there are regulations about how much pure nitrates/nitrites they can add to your food, there’s no regulation on how much celery powder they can add because it’s just considered a “flavoring” ingredient and not a curing agent. “Uncured” bacon or hot dogs or whatever could technically contain far more nitrites than would legally be allowed in their cured counterparts (though in practice I’m sure they’re probably roughly the same amount)
Regardless of if those nitrites are pure or coming from celery powder, it’s the same chemical doing the same thing in your food and body.
Other veggies contain a lot of nitrites/nitrates too, cabbage for example. I’ve occasionally had it happen when I make cabbage rolls in a pressure cooker that despite being totally cooked through the ground beef is still a pretty vibrant red/pink like corned beef because of the nitrites from the cabbage.
I’m not saying this to scare-monger or anything, there are valid health concerns about nitrates and nitrites in general, and of course people like you who have a particular sensitivity to them, and it’s well worth being aware of all of that. That said, I’ve been dabbling in curing my own meats and have a big jar of Prague powder #1 in my pantry which is 6.25% sodium nitrite, so clearly it’s not something that’s particularly high on my own list of concerns. I also intend to try curing my own corned beef at some point with celery juice and other natural sources of nitrites, not because I think it’s any healthier but because it sounds like a fun experiment.
You’re correct, and things like celery powder do contain nitrites. These workarounds have never caused me any problems, but I’m sure people vary. I can eat regular bacon every once in a while and be fine, it’s only after a few days buildup that I start the Big Itch (followed by the big hives.) Everyone has to work out their own tolerances.
FWIW, if you haven’t already, it may be worth giving the packaging of your “regular” bacon and such a good looking-over
I haven’t done an exhaustive survey, it’s just something I tend to notice because like I said, I dabble in cured meats as a hobby, but at least around me a lot of bacon, hot dogs, etc. across the whole spectrum from bottom of the barrel store brands up to the fancy high-end name brands are touting that they’re “uncured,” and even if they don’t outright say that as a selling point they’re only listing celery powder and natural flavors in the ingredients and no sodium nitrite/nitrate
It’s not all brands by a longshot, but it’s a lot of them.
Not trying to push any kind of cured meat agenda, just kind of giving you something else to look out for, maybe it will give you a few more options or help you discover some other things you should avoid.