The nitrate scare is way overblown.
1) Meat barely has nitrates, even processed cured meat. A cured meat may have maybe 150 mg/kg of nitrates (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1717664/pdf/v079p00198a.pdf)
while vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, or beets may have 2500 mg/kg of nitrates (
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/142/9/1652.long)
2) It isn't necessarilly the nitrates that are bad. "We observed no association between intake of nitrate and nitrite from plant sources and [renal cell carcinoma]" (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3553522/).
3) It seems like it is more of a link between red meat being bad vs. processed meat being bad (nitrates). "We observed a suggestive positive association with measured values of nitrate from processed meat, but this association failed to reach statistical significance... There was no clear association with measured values nitrite from processed meat and bladder cancer... However, we observed a borderline statistically significant association for combined nitrate and nitrite from processed meat among those in the top quintile...We observed a borderline statistically significant increased risk of bladder cancer for those in the highest versus the lowest quintile of red meat" (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20681011)
4) Even if you are eating nitrates, red meat, and not enough vitimin C the link to health problems ranges between nothing and barely measurable. "Overall, nitrate intake was not associated with colorectal cancer risk" (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24242755) "Nitrate intake was not associated with thyroid cancer risk" (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22674227). "The authors found no associations between adult or adolescent nitrate or nitrite intake from processed meats and pancreatic cancer among women. These results provide modest evidence that processed meat sources of dietary nitrate and nitrite may be associated with pancreatic cancer among men and provide no support for the hypothesis in women." (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21685410).
Bascially, lots of red meat, burnt to a crisp, without enough vitamin C may have a slight increase in cancers, but even then it is nothing compared to the increase caused by other factors (such as smoking for example). I've never seen pastrami burnt to a crisp.
Eat it and enjoy it. Then have a balanced diet too.
