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?
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.