Nitrate: A Confusing Controversy That Might Harm You More Than It Helps.

Is nitrate carcinogenic or cardioprotective? Let’s dive into a controversy that pits health organisations against themselves.

A few days ago, I came across an alarmist blog post with this headline:

“Colon Cancer On Tap. Nitrate In Drinking Water.”

The post claimed that nitrate in our public drinking water supplies is a major cancer risk. It urged health organisations to reduce the maximum permissible limit of nitrate in our water.

Unfortunately, there are too many of these purveyors of panic around.

And the health organizations are not helpful in containing them. To the contrary.

National health organizations in the US and EU set the nitrate limit for public drinking water at 50 mg/litre. They consider everything above that a cancer risk.

And here comes the about-face:

The same health organizations endorse the regular consumption of beet root juice FOR ITS HIGH NITRATE CONTENT (on average 5 times the 50 mg threshold per serving), which is supposed to be protective against cancer (particularly those of the digestive tract from throat to intestine), and cardiovascular disease.