Think twice before choosing to eat lunch meat!

Lunch meat is such a easy quick way to make a meal and a simple way to feed a crowd. I really wanted to take a second to discuss the dangers of processed meats because many of us eat this type of food daily and feed it to our children.

These types of meats are strongly linked to lukemia, brain tumors, cancers such as prostate, colon, breast, and pancreas and many more diseases! The evidence continues to mount, as demonstrated by a recent study showing a 67% increase in pancreatic cancer for people consuming moderate amounts of processed meat on a frequent basis. (Pulse; 4/23/2005, Vol. 65 Issue 16, p10)

So what is Fresh meat?
Fresh meat usually has only one ingredient: The meat! Fresh meat is refrigerated and has a very short shelf life (just a few days, usually). It's usually packaged in simple wrappers, with no fancy logos or color printing.


Processed meat has many ingredients and is usually packaged for long-term shelf life. These products almost always contain sodium nitrite, the cancer-causing chemical additive that meat companies use as a color fixer to turn their meat products a bright red "fresh-looking" color. Processed meat products include:

* Bacon * Sausage * Pepperoni * Beef jerky * Deli slices * Hot dogs * Sandwich meat (including those served at restaurants) * Ham * Meat "gift" products like Christmas sausages * Meat used in canned soups * Meat used in frozen pizza * Meat used in kid's lunch products * Meat used in ravioli, spaghetti or Italian pasta products and many more meat products.



For now, just remember: Processed meats = sodium nitrite = cancer

So the best option is to avoid all processed meats to live a healthy and happy life, but if you have to have them PLEASE read the label and choose nitrite free.