Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:11:14 +0100, Adrian C
wrote:

On 14/04/2010 18:56, Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:
More so with plain old cooking (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrosamine)

It says on that page

"The presence of nitrosamines may be identified by the Liebermann's
reaction"

Er, Jeff ??

He was a distant cousin in Germany. Most of his useful work was done
in the 1880's. He died just before WWI. It's more correctly the
Liebermann?Burchard reaction used to test for the presence of
cholesterol and steroids.

Nitrosamines are formed from the heating of sodium nitrite, used for
red food coloring. Any kind of heating will cause it's production.
However, the "cause" is not the heating. It's the artificial
adulterants added to the meat that are the problem. Note that the
human body can convert nitited (procarcinogens) into nitrosamin, even
if the cooking process does not produce any.

AFAIK Nitrites are used to *preserve* meats, not just add red color.
It then becomes a question of people getting sick or dying from bad
meat now, or possibly dying many years later of cancer.
Personally I limit the amount of cured meats I eat, but do not avoid
it entirely.

I vaguely recall that barbeque cooking is the worst for nitrosamines,
while microwave cooking produces the least.

I thought the high temperature charring created allegedly cancer
causing by-products.

Jerry