To give my children ham sandwiches every week?

[Popskipiekin]

My dad, who has had bowel cancer, is very up on what food is bad for you. He sent me this link which says - broadly - that ham, bacon and other processed meats are as bad as cigarettes and asbestos health-wise...

www.heraldscotland.com/news/17649774.herald-on-sunday-campaign-time-to-dump-nitro-meat-from-schools-and-hospitals/

DC have ham in some form every week. Sometimes twice. Is this very terrible? I thought ham wasn’t quite in the same category as bacon (which I do know we should be avoiding).

Italy has lots of different kinds of ham, agreed. Do they place “huge emphasis” on it, as opposed to the emphasis they place on their cheeses, breads, pasta dishes, etc?

And which other countries do this?

Im sure and occasional ham or bacon sandwich is fine

German food is heavily dependent on processed meats too.

True - 3 years in east Germany as a vegetarian was interesting for me. But I wouldn’t say Germany has one of the “greatest food cultures”.

Yes I think so family. You are determined to disagree and that’s fine. Not really fussed about persuading you, amazingly

www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/colorectal-cancer-statistics

Interestingly, few of the countries we associate with high levels of consumption of processed meat have particularly high rates of colorectal cancer. Alcohol is also implicated.

@BinkyBaa asbestos is no laughing matter but I’m afraid I did snort at how often do you see people dying of ham exposure

Thank you to pps for suggestion of nitrate free ranges. I think I’m going to be more conscious of what I give the DC now. Ham or other similar meats just once a week in amongst a healthy varied diet can must surely cause limited harm but I do default to ham in sandwiches, and why’s that? I can probably stretch to giving them to another sandwich filling with a less established link to cancer now and again!

Parma ham is wafer thin.A whole packet probably ways less than one slice of bacon,Maybe Italians eat a lot less in reality.

Not really fussed about persuading you, amazingly

So there aren’t many great food cultures that place huge emphasis on processed meat. Got it.

No you haven’t got it, you disagree, grow up a bit. Think what you like. Get my Italian grandparents on the subject of ham and you’ll be surprised at the depth of feeling

If you aren’t vegetarian, it is generally recommended that you eat red meat a couple of times a week.
How can it be fine for vegetarians to eat no meat, but if you do eat meat, you should have to eat it at least 2 or 3 times a week? Are vegetarians a different species? Surely if humans should eat meat 2 or 3 times a week, all humans should. The research would have said that vegetarian diets are not recommended, because you should eat meat 2 or 3 times a week.

Get my Italian grandparents on the subject of ham and you’ll be surprised at the depth of feeling

But Italians eta a shipload of fresh vegetables with an impressive variety, artichokes, eggplants, fennels, and eat abundant onions and garlics so it somehow balances the bad effects of processed . In Uk and Australia you are more likely to eat processed meat accompanied by fried potatoes, hot chips or crisps, which come with an additional carcinogen and washed by down with a beer, another class 1 carcinogen.
So the synergetic effect makes it all worse.

The WHO says they cannot give a sage level for processed meat so the NHS saying 70 gr is more a political and economical answer to what society sees as a need, being bacon and sausages so imbedded in the culture.

Also we were in with dietitician for DD. She says children must eat some red meat a couple of times a week for brain development and included bacon in that

I still can't get over this comment. What bullshit

Don't forget to throw sausages / frankfurters into the mix on this one.

Ratemyplate has been an almighty eye opener for me in terms of what some people think is normal eating in terms of both quality and quantity of food (yy I get much of it is comedy, but christ, what some people are prepared to eat is astonishing)

Heyha

We bought a slicer for the job: it was utterly terrifying 😁 we sent it back and patiently use a knife.
The only thing that bothers me is ditching the maple syrup at the end of the 4 days because it’s costly and it seems wasteful. Im going to look into whether it’s safe to use it again immediately for a second piece. Don’t see why not, it’s effectively a preservative and honey is anti bacterial but I don’t know about syrup. if it was just me I wouldn’t think twice but if I’m feeding others I suppose it’s impolite to poison them .....,

I have switched to Finnebrogue ham and bacon rashers for this reason. Tastes great and I feel happier not giving the nitrate ham to the kids. I know the risk is small but why not eliminate it if you can.

Decent freshly made Sausages don’t count as “processed meat” in the UK if they are just minced pork/beef with bread, seasonings etc. It’s the preservatives (nitrates) that are carcinogens.

The Naked Ham by Finnebrogue is great, btw.

Ham isn't good for you

Ham is bad for people, bad for the planet, and very, very bad for the pig. Don’t eat ham.

Ham is bloody delicious.

I think ham is horrid. I used to selectively claim to be Muslim/Jewish or vegetarian whenever it was served at school. But hey, each to their own......

Don’t eat ham.

Oh, ok. I’ll stop eating something because a random stranger on the internet says so. 🙄

Don't eat it, then jocasta.

All the more for the rest of us.

As I said : “each to their own”.

No, you said don’t eat ham . I don’t any more anyway because I’ve decided not to. But you were a bit bossy!