What meats should you avoid?

Chef's answer
Processed meats, such as bacon, sausage, salami and cold cuts, contain high levels of preservatives. Sodium, for example, raises blood pressure and stroke risk, while the body converts nitrites to cancer-causing nitrosamines. Lean or not, these products aren't healthy.
Frequently asked Questions 🎓
4. Processed Lunch Meat. Lunch meats, including deli cold cuts, bologna, and ham, make the unhealthy list because they contain lots of sodium and sometimes fat as well as some preservatives like nitrites..
Food products categorized as processed meat include:
  • Sausages, hot dogs, salami.
  • Ham, cured bacon.
  • Salted and cured meat, corned beef.
  • Smoked meat.
  • Dried meat, beef jerky.
  • Canned meat.
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On the other hand, meat that has been frozen or undergone mechanical processing like cutting and slicing is still considered unprocessed. Bottom Line: All meat that has been smoked, salted, cured, dried or canned is considered processed. This includes sausages, hot dogs, salami, ham and cured bacon..
The Many Health Risks of Processed Foods
  • Increased cancer risk. ...
  • Too much sugar, sodium and fat. ...
  • Lacking in nutritional value. ...
  • Calorie dense and addicting. ...
  • Quicker to digest. ...
  • Full of artificial ingredients.
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Generally it's things that have been prepared such that there's some sort of added preservative -- salt, sulfates, sulfides, nitrates, etc. So this would include all hams except 'fresh ham', almost all deli meats, all sausages, bacon, jerky, corned beef, etc. So yes, sausage is considered a processed meat..
How Can I Choose a Healthier Lunch Meat?
  • Always choose fresh deli meat over prepackaged lunch meat. Deli meat that is sliced fresh off the bone or slab contain natural nitrates and is minimally processed.
  • Look for a low-sodium deli meat. ...
  • Choose the leanest cut of deli meat possible such as turkey, chicken breast, lean ham or roast beef.
The biggest difference between cured and uncured is the fact that the uncured uses natural curing agents, such as celery powder, which transforms into nitrite when it is processed. Thus, uncured products have labels with: "No Nitrates or Nitrites added except those naturally in celery powder or juice".
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