Following on from Nice Ham thread - how much better for you is it than packet stuff?

[sphil]

A few of us on the other thread are keen to know the answer to this. In my case, I need to limit the amount of processed meat we eat, as my mum has bowel cancer and there's a hereditary link . I know the saltiness of ham isn't great, but I think (though I don't know for sure) that it's the nitrates (and sulphites??) in processed meat that are the real baddies, which wouldn't be there in ham you cooked yourself.

Anyone a food scientist, or nutritionist, or just know?

[AMumInScotland]

Unfortunately, I believe the nitrates are added to the ham during the curing process, so they will be there in a ham joint which you cook for yourself just as much as in pre-cooked and sliced ham.

I don't know to what extent ham is linked to bowel cancer, but if you've been warned against processed meats, then "nice ham" would have to be included in the warning

[sphil]

So if I wanted to avoid nitrates I'd have to do a Hugh F-W and cure my own? Pants!

[TsarChasm]

I was interested in the answer to this too.

Oh why do all the nicest foods have to come with the inevitable downer? Home cooked ham is divine.

[TsarChasm]

Also how much ham is too much? I'm worried now. I use it quite often in the dc's packed lunches.

[sphil]

We need to go on one of Hugh's ' Kill and Cook Your own Pig' courses

[TsarChasm]

Oh blimey. I'm not sure I want to know the name of the piggy I'm eating. He's so very rustic isn't he, old HFW? There's saomething about him though...()