The word "nitrates", associated with food at all on hearing. Everyone knows that a high content of nitrates is bad, but few people are interested in details.
Harm of nitrates
Nitrates are nitric acid salts, which are contained in large quantities in vegetables, as well as fruits, berries, milk and even meat. Their danger is that when they get into the human body, they are synthesized in it into other compounds - nitrites, which will disrupt the process of normal respiration of cells. With insignificant use of salts - within the limits of the norm, which is about 5 mg per one kilogram of weight, they do not cause significant damage to the body. If this dose is exceeded, acute nitrate poisoning is doubled, and even larger doses can lead to significant disorders and disorders, and even to death.
What to do? Of course, the ideal option would be to subsistence and grow fruits, vegetables, and animals for meat for your table, but this is not always feasible for most of the urbanized population. There are ways to reduce the concentration of harmful substances in food, namely:
- soaking vegetables and fruits in water before eating for several hours;
- heat treatment;
- pickling, salting, pickling;
- dressing vegetable salads with lemon juice and vegetable oils reduces the toxic effect of salts on the body, and the use of heavy fat sauces like mayonnaise on the contrary - increases;
- be careful with the gastronomy - nitrates are often added to sausages, salted and smoked fish in order to extend the shelf life of these products;
- most nitrates in early vegetables and fruits, because they are grown using more fertilizer. The same applies to plants that fructify in greenhouses. Do not rush to please your family with cucumbers in March and the first watermelons in early June, it is better to give preference to vegetables and fruits that ripen naturally in the season.
Household Nitrate Meter
There is another way to protect your family from the harmful effects of nitrates. It is to initially buy products that contain them within the allowed range. Of course, according to various quality standards, others simply can not be on sale, but practice is far from being so rosy. Which exit? Determine the level of harmful substances with a personal portable meter of nitrates in vegetables, fruits, milk, meat products and even water.
The nitrate meter is designed for self-rapid analysis of all kinds of food. Available in free sale nitrate meters also help to determine the level of radiation, which makes them indispensable for those who are engaged in construction, geology, heavy industry. They can also be used successfully by organizations where quality control
Modern devices for the determination of nitrates are equipped with a simple intuitive menu, a small number of buttons for navigation. The principle of the nitrate tester is that it has pre-programmed norms for the maximum permissible concentration of salts in a given product. So, for a correct definition, it's enough to choose the appropriate item in me with the name, say, a vegetable, and then stick the dipstick into it. The indicator of the device will show in which tolerance zone the content of nitrates in a particular product is located.