What They Call Clean Meats?

[twinflame2]

I was informed that Nitrates in meat contain a small percentage of gluten. Is that why they say to eat clean meats? And what are clean meats exactly? I am still new to the diet and am having some difficulties being sure I am staying gluten free.

I have not read anywhere that the nitrates in meat are a problem. Nor have I seen it on the list of forbidden items in the diet.

Can anyone share more information about this area?

[Mango04]

"Clean meat" generally refers to animals that were raised without hormones, antibiotics, chemicals, toxic feed, unnatural habitats etc etc etc etc etc. Any conventional meat you buy from the regular super market will usually will involve these things. Organic or locally raised free-range meat might be a bit more "clean."

Nitrates are known to be harmful to the human body, but I've never heard of them containing gluten (I could be wrong, but I avoid nitrites anyway for non-gluten-related reasons).

If you're looking to avoid nitrates, you can usually find nitrite-free bacon, lunch meat, hot dogs and such at health food stores.

[lovegrov]

Nitrates do NOT contain gluten.

richard

[RiceGuy]

There's a recent thread about milk containing gluten, so that makes me suspect that beef can too. Most (if not all) of the animals on large beef farms are fed wheat as part of their diet.

[VioletBlue]

Nitrites do not contain gluten. But it is not unusual for people to be allergic to nitrites. For me it causes a very similar reaction to that of ingesting gluten. Nitrites will be found in preserved processed meats such as sausage, ham, brined meats like pastrami or corned beef and of course pretty much all meat cold cuts. You're not going to find it in fresh meat. Likewise if a cow eats wheat it's meat is not contaminated any more than it's milk is. The milk someone mentioned that contained gluten had the gluten added to it in the manufacturing process and it was marked on the container as such.

Nitrates are different from Nitrites. Nitrates are considered toxic and are not used in food processing. Chemically the two are very different.