I will admit that I did not research it, just thought "Hey, having less crap in our food the better we are".
We asked our meat friend June from WW Longhorn Ranch why she uses nitrates in her bacon. She commented that the non nitrate bacon is made with celery powder and if we recall vegetables are naturally high in nitrates. So the natural (sodium nitrate is natural as well) method also involves nitrates.
The real bad guy is nitrosamines, either way you preserve you will produce some of these guys. These are known carcinogenics and really become a big problem when the food containing these are exposed to high heat.
This is one of the reasons you shouldn't repeatedly use the same fat to cook in over and over again.
The vegetable sources also come with anti oxidants which help the body tolerate the nitrate and prevents them from being turned into the nitrosamines. The processed meats will add asorbic acid or vitamin E to accomplish a similar effect.
Nitrites are actually good? Well they are a natural disinfectant and will kill the bacteria that causes botulism. So in a way a true nitrate free deli meat could actually be more hazardous to your health.
So the difference I guess would come into non cured, since that doesn't undergo the preserving process. but is uncured bacon really bacon, or is it just pg belly? I don't know, but it is tasty :p
Well, that helps in my search for nitrate free braunschweiger, now I can just work on finding friendly raised and properly fed meats.
So I guess the lesson here is that less is not always better, and that there is always a way to prove your point of view.