Protein is damaged by heat. You “denature” protein when you heat it for too long, or when you cook it in very high heat. The nature of the protein changes.
This happens when you process or “cure” meat. To sterilize medical supplies and instruments they heat them to an extreme, which denatures proteins in any bacteria that may be there, destroying them.
Pre-cooked and pre-packaged meats like hot dogs, smoked meats, lunch meats, bacon and breakfast sausage, pepperoni and lox, and especially soy proteins, are all “cured” the same way.
They’ve had their proteins sterilized. Their nutritional value has been ruined. And they’re not what I would consider healthy. And when your body breaks down these cured proteins, a byproduct can combine with the nitrites used in meat processing to make nitrosamines.
There are over 300 different forms of nitrosamines, and over 90 percent are cancer-causing.
So when it comes to eating protein, I recommend following these two steps:
Step 1: Eat protein from a variety of natural sources. That can be anything from eating a raw egg every morning like my father would, to having a scoop of grass-fed whey protein from a pure and trusted source.
Besides having undenatured protein that will not form nitrosamines, they are the most bio-available kinds of protein. The least bio-available are vegetable proteins from beans, for example. But those are still better for you than protein from cured or processed meat.
Milk also has protein, but pasteurized milk protein is denatured. Whole, raw milk still has its proteins intact.
Step 2: Take the nutrients that fight nitrosamines: vitamins C and E. Scientists found vitamin C’s protective power by accident. Researchers were studying nitrosamine formation caused by a drug they were testing. When they went to use a new batch, no nitrosamines were formed. They found that the new batch had been made with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as a preservative, but the original batch had not. Vitamin E has a similar effect.
Studies show vitamin C works by disarming free radicals before they can damage your DNA and stimulate tumor growth.
When you add vitamin E, you increased the protection of vitamin C. As it turns out vitamin E is a “synergistic” nutrient. It needs other antioxidants to work best. It’s prevention at its finest.
Toms Blog on Life and Livingness