COUGER GORDON wrote:
> Was the pork cured? Nitrates are added to cured meat products to
> inhibit the growth of botulism. Nitrates are also involved with
> blood vessel dilation. I don't really think that small about of
> nitrate could cause a problem but it might.
We must make distinction between inorganic nitrates (nitrites?) used as
meat preservatives which are electrolytes and do not produce nitrix oxide
(), and organic nitrates which are esters (e.g. nitroglycerine) and do
produce NO in the body. It is NO what dilates blood vessels. Ergo - salting
pork with nitrates has nothing to do with vascular physiology.
Marcin Gierdalski
USUHS, Anatomy