"For a healthy and balanced diet you should eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day". This phrase is often repeated everywhere in our society.
Eating vegetables is of course very healthy and important in our diet! Only some vegetables, when prepared in a certain way and with a lack of hygiene, can be responsible for diseases.
I would like to talk to you today about a food that’s rich in nitrates, carrots.
To begin with, nitrates (NO3-) are ions composed of several atoms: one nitrogen and 3 oxygens. This compound can be present in the air, in water but also in some vegetables.
The nitrate concentration in carrots in particular depends on the way in which the vegetable is prepared. These chemical compounds can therefore also be present in baby jars. So far so good, nitrate is naturally present in some vegetables (spinach, celery, carrot, trout, ...).
But this can become problematic when these nitrates are converted to nitrite (NO2-). It has been proven by various studies that nitrite is one of the causes of methemoglobinemia.
What is methemoglobinemia?
This disease can be both hereditary or acquired). Methemoblobin is an alteration of the structure of hemoglobin.
Hemoglobin is found in our red blood cells and these molecules are able to fix oxygen on an iron atom (Fe2 +) and carry it throughout our body.
When a person has methemoglobinemia, iron in the center of hemoglobin is converted to another form (Fe3 +) that is no longer capable of binding oxygen. This leads to severe headaches, fatigue, diffuculty breathing. When the methemoglobin level in the blood is high the consequences can be dramatic, going as far as death.
It is important to remember that the nitrates that are naturally present in carrots are harmless but it is the nitrites which are the methemoglobinizing agents.
The conversion of nitrates to nitrites is done under the action of certain bacteria and / or specific enzymes (nitrates reductases).
Bacterial overgrowth, as a result of lack of hygiene or storage of baby bottles, may be the cause of conversion of nitrate to nitrite, as well as preparation in poor hygiene conditions in the kitchen. Also some bacteria in our colon are able to make this transformation, only the majority of the nitrate will be already absorbed in the stomach and in the upper part of the small intestine so no problem there.
In conclusion: the cause of the presence of this nitrite in bottles is thqt they are polluted with bacteria. In addition to that, boiling carrot soup several times actually induces the conversion of nitrate to nitrite! So here is my tip of the day: the carrot soup is certainly very good, but try to boil it only once!
That’s why you should never boil soup multiple times. Carrots naturally have a lot of nitrates and you dont want to transform too many of them into nitrites.
Do not panic, ingesting a massive amount of nitrite directly that a young infant under 10 months of age (only) is at risk of methemoglobin. In addition, there is a treatment. I remind you that this disease is rare and the incidence is low. Moreover the ingestion of nitrites is not the only cause of the disease, it is therefore necessary that either that the amount of nitrite ingested is gigantic, or that there is already a hereditary genetic predisposition for this pathology.
Kiss
D.
