 Nitrosamines are considered the most carcinogenic, the most cancer-causing agents in cigarette smoke. In 2011, scientists measured the amount of nitrosamines in meat products. This is a table showing quantities of seven different preformed carcinogenic nitrosamines. So from chicken meatballs to pork, turkey slices, hot dogs, foie gras, and sausage, processed meats come pre-packaged with carcinogens thanks to the transformation that occurs from nitrite to nitrosamine in the absence of phytonutrients. How much is there in meat compared to tobacco? The cancer project uses this graphic to warn consumers about the cancer risks associated with processed meat, which kind of suggests a few hot dogs may contain the carcinogenic load of a pack of cigarettes. Turns out they hit it right on the head. Filtred cigarettes have 11 times more nitrosamines than nitrosamides, but that's per kilo. Cigarettes have less than a gram of tobacco each. Hot dogs are about 60 times heavier, and so four hot dogs has more than a pack of 20 cigarettes. Here's how much nitrosamine you can measure over the course of a day in someone eating ham or sausage. And here are two representative graphs of how much is flowing through the bodies of those eating vegetarian. In fact, you can take people who eat smoked or canned meat, put them on a vegetarian diet, and very quickly see it drop as their body starts detoxifying itself within a day or two. Here's a chart of the effect of changing from a meat diet to a vegetarian diet on urinary nitrosamine levels, or a reflection of what's flowing through their bloodstreams. Looking at four different carcinogens, you can see day one and two, they're eating meat, then vegetarian days three through five, and you can see the dramatic drop, though it doesn't drop as low as those on the control vegetarian diet. Presumably though, a few more days eating vegetarian, and their bodies will be able to flush out the remainder.