People food for thought Part VII; Cold cut meat
In previous entry titled " People food for thought Part VI; Sandwich ", I wrote that sandwich you find in Japan and sandwich you find in the states are somewhat different.
The sandwich in the states seems to use a lot of cold cut meat or Deli meat such as Ham, Salami, Pastrami, Corned beef,Bologna,Bacon along with slice of cheese and they tend to be saltier than sandwiches in Japan.
Sandwich in Japan tend to uses more fresh vegetables with much less cold cut meat and cheese.
I enjoy corned beef with provolone cheese melted on the toasted Italian bread etc occasionally, and yes, it is tasty. However, are the piled high sandwiches with cold cut meat or Deli meat good for you?
What are the cold cut meats?
In the super market, cold cut meats are pre-packaged luncheon meat and pre-sliced deli meats.
According to supermarketguru website, there are 3 types of cold cut meat.
1. Whole cuts of meat or poultry
** cooked with salt,sugar,spice and sliced
2. Sectioned and formed meat products
**being prepared from pieces of meat and bonded to form the piece. Binding agents are non meat additives, non meat emulsion, and extracted myofibrillar proteins.
3. Processed meats
**examples, sausages,hot dogs, bologna etc
Some of the cold cut meats contains chemicals and preservatives to keep the appearance of the products attractive to customers or to have longer shelf life.
You may often find "sodium nitrate" in ingredients list, for example, but do you know what it is for? It is there to prevent the color of the products from changing.
Nitrate is also known to cause health risk such as cancer.
How about "BHT"or "BHA"? They are preservatives to keep the products' shelf life longer. These two preservatives are also known to cause health risk such as cancer.
Supermarket guru website also has list of common terms used in the cold cut meat ingredients lists and shows you what it is for.
To read an full article on cold cut meats at supermarket guru website,please click here .
Cold cut meats and health
According to Tara Parker-Pope from New York Times, there is a study done by Harvard University on processed deli meats and health.
The study was done by tracking the consumption of meat, heart disease, diabetes, and the study found that one serving (50 grams/1.8 oz ; 1-2 slice of deli meat or 1 hot dogs) of such processed deli meats (bacon, salami, bologna, hot dogs, sausage and processed deli or luncheon meat) a day was associated with 42% higher risk of heart disease, 19% increase risk of diabetes, and they fond no increased health risk associated with consuming unprocessed red meat.
This study can show that only difference between the unprocessed red meat and luncheon/deli meats are sodium amount and preservatives. Cold cut meats are cured with salt, and it contains high amount of sodium. High amount of sodium increase the blood pressure and it can causes heart problem.
Tara Parker-Pope writes, the processed cold cut meats contains 4 times more sodium and 50% more nitrate preservatives than unprocessed red meat.
To read the full article by Tara Parker-Pope at New York Times website, please click here .
You can also read more in detail on the study done for processed deli meats and health at Harvard school of public website here .
Sandwiches with cold cut/deli meat are tasty but, eating such sandwich frequently would not be good for your health. I would eat them with moderate level.
Some sandwich place compete against competitors with piled high deli meat sandwich, but I wish they look at health factor, and I wish they would not compete against each other with size of the sandwiches piled high with processed meats. When you think about health, they are not doing any good for your health.
Make the sandwich with more fresh vegetables, unprocessed meat slice rather than pile high cold cut/deli meats on bread.You can be creative with sauce to go with it. It is fun to create your own sandwich and it is better for you.
Next time you grill the Flank steak, use the leftover steak for sandwich. Panera bread used to have steak sandwich with horseradish sauce. That was good. The steak sandwich was discontinued but I hope someday,it would come back to menu again.
Preservatives such as Sodium nitrite,sodium nitrate,BHT/BHA are used widely in processed food from canned soup to frozen pizza,not just processed deli meat/cold cut meat.
This is another reason for you to cooking with fresh food, or try making stuff from scratch without preservatives and eat healthier for your body.
The sandwich in the states seems to use a lot of cold cut meat or Deli meat such as Ham, Salami, Pastrami, Corned beef,Bologna,Bacon along with slice of cheese and they tend to be saltier than sandwiches in Japan.
Sandwich in Japan tend to uses more fresh vegetables with much less cold cut meat and cheese.
I enjoy corned beef with provolone cheese melted on the toasted Italian bread etc occasionally, and yes, it is tasty. However, are the piled high sandwiches with cold cut meat or Deli meat good for you?
What are the cold cut meats?
In the super market, cold cut meats are pre-packaged luncheon meat and pre-sliced deli meats.
According to supermarketguru website, there are 3 types of cold cut meat.
1. Whole cuts of meat or poultry
** cooked with salt,sugar,spice and sliced
2. Sectioned and formed meat products
**being prepared from pieces of meat and bonded to form the piece. Binding agents are non meat additives, non meat emulsion, and extracted myofibrillar proteins.
3. Processed meats
**examples, sausages,hot dogs, bologna etc
Some of the cold cut meats contains chemicals and preservatives to keep the appearance of the products attractive to customers or to have longer shelf life.
You may often find "sodium nitrate" in ingredients list, for example, but do you know what it is for? It is there to prevent the color of the products from changing.
Nitrate is also known to cause health risk such as cancer.
How about "BHT"or "BHA"? They are preservatives to keep the products' shelf life longer. These two preservatives are also known to cause health risk such as cancer.
Supermarket guru website also has list of common terms used in the cold cut meat ingredients lists and shows you what it is for.
To read an full article on cold cut meats at supermarket guru website,please click here .
Cold cut meats and health
According to Tara Parker-Pope from New York Times, there is a study done by Harvard University on processed deli meats and health.
The study was done by tracking the consumption of meat, heart disease, diabetes, and the study found that one serving (50 grams/1.8 oz ; 1-2 slice of deli meat or 1 hot dogs) of such processed deli meats (bacon, salami, bologna, hot dogs, sausage and processed deli or luncheon meat) a day was associated with 42% higher risk of heart disease, 19% increase risk of diabetes, and they fond no increased health risk associated with consuming unprocessed red meat.
This study can show that only difference between the unprocessed red meat and luncheon/deli meats are sodium amount and preservatives. Cold cut meats are cured with salt, and it contains high amount of sodium. High amount of sodium increase the blood pressure and it can causes heart problem.
Tara Parker-Pope writes, the processed cold cut meats contains 4 times more sodium and 50% more nitrate preservatives than unprocessed red meat.
To read the full article by Tara Parker-Pope at New York Times website, please click here .
You can also read more in detail on the study done for processed deli meats and health at Harvard school of public website here .
Sandwiches with cold cut/deli meat are tasty but, eating such sandwich frequently would not be good for your health. I would eat them with moderate level.
Some sandwich place compete against competitors with piled high deli meat sandwich, but I wish they look at health factor, and I wish they would not compete against each other with size of the sandwiches piled high with processed meats. When you think about health, they are not doing any good for your health.
Make the sandwich with more fresh vegetables, unprocessed meat slice rather than pile high cold cut/deli meats on bread.You can be creative with sauce to go with it. It is fun to create your own sandwich and it is better for you.
Next time you grill the Flank steak, use the leftover steak for sandwich. Panera bread used to have steak sandwich with horseradish sauce. That was good. The steak sandwich was discontinued but I hope someday,it would come back to menu again.
Preservatives such as Sodium nitrite,sodium nitrate,BHT/BHA are used widely in processed food from canned soup to frozen pizza,not just processed deli meat/cold cut meat.
This is another reason for you to cooking with fresh food, or try making stuff from scratch without preservatives and eat healthier for your body.
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