Are cured meats and deli sandwiches a worry for pregnant moms because of nitrates?

What's actually in it

Cured deli meats, hot dogs, and bacon use nitrate and nitrite salts to keep meat pink and prevent botulism. In the gut, those salts can turn into nitrosamines, a group of compounds that damage DNA. "Uncured" meats made with celery powder still contain nitrates, just from a plant source.

Plant nitrates from beets and spinach mostly come with vitamin C, which blocks the conversion to nitrosamines. Cured meats don't.

What the research says

A 2026 review in Int J Hyg Environ Health rounded up nitrate and nitrite studies in pregnancy. Vegetable nitrates looked safe and even helpful for blood pressure. Cured-meat nitrates and nitrites tracked with worse outcomes at high daily intakes, including more low birth weight and pregnancy complications.

The risk wasn't from a sandwich here and there. It was from daily lunch meat plus bacon plus hot dogs.

For pregnancy, treat cured meats as a sometimes food. Heat deli meat to steaming before eating, since heat also lowers Listeria risk. Pack lunches with roasted chicken, tuna salad, or egg salad instead of cold cuts most days.