Early this week, our youngest daughter, Jamie, have a severe allergic reaction to something. After a steroid and benadryl shot and the next couple days on massive amounts of Prednisone, she is feeling better and the hives are slowly dissipating. Scary, especially at 17 years old. None of our children have any allergies to anything, and I've never had first hand experience with symptoms quite so severe.
Once everything was under control, we started to go through everything she had been exposed to, eaten, drank etc. over the 24 hours prior to the reaction. I had to call a local producer of sausages and bacon to also find out what they were using in their recipes, since Jamie had not eaten anything new or out of the ordinary except a cheese spread containing their bacon. I was told by the owner (after much assurance that I love their products and won't stop eating them :)) that they cure bacon using celery juice powder instead of commercially prepared nitrates. Celery juice powder is totally legal to use and don't get me wrong, these are responsible producers of cured meats and sausages.
I did a bit of Internet browsing and only clicked on reliable sources that I am familiar with. I was really surprised at what I discovered. Here are a couple links if you're interested in finding out more about celery juice powder used in curing meats;
http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/
http://agriculturesociety.com/tag/ham/
Jamie will have to go to have a bit of allergy testing to find out the real culprit, but I think our whole family feels more informed about nitrates/nitrites after reading several articles! I hope you will too!
The nitrate/nitrite debate happens everyday at our specialty food store. (I won't mention the gluten, dairy, lactose debates too.) I now feel like there are a couple great sources to give to folks that may help them make the best choices possible for their families as well!
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