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?

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

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

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.

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

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

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...()