Red / processed meat

[vanessalightyear]

Did anyone see the Michael Moseley thing on the other night about meat?

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04fhb90/horizon-20142015-1-should-i-eat-meat-the-big-health-dilemma

I've been doing Harcombe phase 2/3 on and off since Christmas and I'm now a bit worried we've been eating way too much of the red/processed meat the programme talked about. We do have a lot of chicken/fish and veggie meals but also a lot more red meat than I used to. EG we will have some sort of slow cooked beef thing once a week, bacon several times, high meat % sausages, a beef mince thing once a week etc. I have also used Wiltshire ham a lot, at least once a day in salads and sometimes as breakfast with eggs, or a snack rolled up with soft cheese. Staple harcombe meals are chicken and chorizo stew, slow cooked ham joint or pulled pork (no sugar).

The only thing I have been looking out for on labels is sugar, and anything else goes. I was also of the mindset that meat is the easiest way to get that protein/fat combination that keeps you full and makes the WOE easier / enjoyable.
I'm now thinking after watching this we should overhaul the menu and go for way more carb based meals, but I do find this more difficult to stick to.
Has anyone got suggestions on how to stick to fat meals but without all the bad meats?

Once again...The BBC set from the start the results it wanted to achieve, so no surprise that the cholesterol and BP were high at the end of the program.

To put it into perspective Italy, Monaco and SanMarino (San Marino and Monaco are city-state within the Italian peninsula) are amongst the top 10 longest living population. Try take away red meat and insaccati (ham and cured meat) away from Italians.... Red Meat is ingrained in the culture and is eaten virtually every day in their 'secondo piatto', often both at lunch and dinner. :) However, vegetables and fruit are the biggest part of their diet.

Apologies for typos.
I also wanted to add that cured meats in Italy are dry and not wet cured (hence the price tag!) and burger are traditionally either grilled, wood cooked and very rarely fried. Bacon is traditionally used as flavouring.

I didn't see the programme, but I have seen reports recently condemning all red meat. But the trouble is that they don't make any distinction between 'fresh/natural' and 'processed' meat.

From everything I've read I'd say that there's no need to worry about the former, but every reason to worry about the latter.

So carry on eating red meat, but look to cut right down on the processed stuff.

you might find this piece interesting reading

Harcombe advises limiting processed meats anyway doesn't it?

Could you use pork mince to make sausage patties so unprocessed? Or make chicken burgers?

It is part of low carbing to cut down or cut out processed foods of all kinds. Naturally that will include processed meats. Remember that low cost processed meats will contain nitrates and it is these that are thought to be the real baddies not the meat per se. So look for bacon Ham etc without nitrates. Very hard to find but worth it.
Also bear in mind that the amount of protein we have each day should not be excessive. Maybe only 100 grams a day or even less. So we don't actually eat loads of meat.
None of the issues highlighted in the program were attributable to fat. So have plenty of that and cut down on processed meats