Reported by By Stephen Daniells for FoodNavigator.com:
"People who regularly eat cured meats are 71 per cent more likely to have symptoms of lung disease than people who never eat this type of meat, says a new study from the US.The nitrite content of cured meat has been proposed to be behind the observations. But R. Graham Barr, an assistant professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York told FoodNavigator.com that the research, the first to look at the effects of nitrite consumption in humans, has no current implications for the cured meat industry.
"This is a first, cross-sectional, observational study. Further research is needed before we make any recommendations regarding public health," he said.
Nitrites are added to meat to retard rancidity, stabilise flavour, and establish the characteristic pink colour of cured meat. Studies and recommendations by health and governmental organisations ensure the safety of such products.
The implications of the research, said Professor Barr, may be on our understanding on what causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) beyond cigarette smoke.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mainly affects smokers, and is the number four cause of death worldwide. It is characterised by chronic inflammation in the small airways of the lung and leads to excessive mucus production, excessive fibrous connective tissue development (fibrosis), and degradation of proteins (proteolysis). There is no cure.
Yet a reported 10 per cent of people who die from COPD are said to have never smoked in their lives, a statistic that suggests that other factors beyond smoking may play a role in the development of the disease.
One such factor may be nitrites in cured meat, Barr and his co-worker Rui Jiang told attendees at last weeks European Respiratory Society annual congress in Munich.
The American researchers noted that animal studies have shown that nitrites in food can produce reactive forms of nitrogen that can damage the lungs, causing alterations in lung structure similar to those that characterise emphysema."
