Sausages... Do you feed them to your kids?!

[DGGR]

Sounds silly I know...
But after seeing processed red meat as a class 1 carcinogen (Who grading) I keep feeling so guilty every time my son eats them. But they're his favourite food!
I've stopped buying them in the regular shop because I know he has them at school and with grandparents so he eats them at least once a week.
I follow some 'health influencers' who don't agree with it based on 'healthy' countries like Spain also consuming a lot of red processed meat.
But it's in my kids school dinner menu, along with ham. And all parents I know seem to feed it to their kids regularly. So I was wondering what others thought based on the fact its potentially really unhealthy.

Thanks

We just had toad in the hole so yes! I try to decent ones from either the butcher or the high meat % ones in the supermarket. None of like chicken sausages although my dc do like the Richmond veg sausages so I also buy them sometimes. We have then a couple of times a month I would say.

Ehhhh too much effort when you could just buy the sausages from the same butcher.

Depends on the butcher tbh. Some just buy them in from some wholesalers and won't be any 'better' than supermarket ones, some make them in house.and would be better. Again depending on wherever they get their meat from in the first place... some get locally reared high welfare animals and butcher themselves or with a partner farm. And some will just be buying wholesale and again, probably no better than the supermarket.

Yay, another thing to stress about. Think that makes 3 hundred million billion things on the worry list now. I'll be amazed if my kids make it to 18 the way they eat ten time better than I ate in my childhood

I try to only buy either fresh sausages (which are not considered processed food) or - if packaged - ones that say they’re nitrate free on the label.

Pork is a red meat, fyi.

I do but the posh ones and try to limit to once a week.

All children seem to adore them..

I had Heck meat-free sausages for breakfast this morning. Quite sure I didn’t imagine them 🙂

There will be huge variation in the quality and ingredients of sausages.
Some will be categorised as be made of 'mechanically reclaimed meat' and others have alot more coarse and have am higher 'meat' content ie. not rusk and fat.
All sausages are 'processed' to some degree but it does depend.
I don't want to shame anyone but hot dogs and frankfurters will be some of the worst for this and will contain alot of collagen and meat from other parts of the animal. I have ate those in the past but I try not to now and I'm doing quite well with it.
I absolutely love parma ham and salami, but again I'm trying not to eat it any more because I'm trying to be a vegetarian. It is said that the preservation methods with these meat products are not healthy, as in they contain 'sulphites' which are the preservatives in cured meat products, not necessarily the cut of the meat.

Buy them from your local butcher, who will (probably)not be making them from processed meat. Or buy veggie sausages.

I wouldn't have meat free one as they are upf. You can buy sausages online that are just pork and oats but they ate expensive. That's what we have but because they are so expensive they are a rarely eaten treat.

We have organic sausages about once a month (although I have no idea if I’m being ripped off) and I have also stopped buying bacon and ham. I am trying to cut out processed foods but it’s so hard to find the time to make things from scratch and read ingredients labels.

Veggie sausages are also processed food! The Ultra processed food book is really helpful if anyone wants a quick read by Chris Van Tuleken

I give my kids much much less ham than I used to for this reason and conveniently they seem to have both gone off sausages. But chorizo is our downfall (hoping for most mumsnet comment of the week award)

Wow how fascinating, thank you so much for that information, its so good to know!

Just make sure to buy good ones! Skip the crappy Richmond ones or those of the ilk and get some from the butcher.

I think 'pick your poison'. There is so much said about so many foods that I tend to look at what we're eating as a family overall, look at what is really enjoyed and compare it to what we eat for the sake of it. We love sausages and baked beans. Favourites are M&S cocktail sausages and we don't really deviate from that.

We don't though eat salamis or hot dog type sausages; we used to but, pick your favourite and discard the others.

I really don't see the issue in a balanced diet as PP said. Husband and I neither drink nor smoke nor vape... but sausages and fishfingers embargo are a line we will not cross.

I read an interesting post from an American about their bread and apparently, it's full of high fructose corn syrup as are many products. Our bread does not have this and I'm eternally grateful as I wouldn't make it myself. At least in the UK and Europe we get to pick our poisons, it must be very difficult if a known harmful substance is put in almost everything that you consume.

For this and other reasons, I've ceased to fret about sausages and the like.

Haven't read all the posts but have you ever tried the vegetarian sausages? Linda McCartney range is nice and my DS has no idea it's not meat

DS has low fat sausages for breakfast twice a week, with scrambled eggs, so do I.

It’s worth pointing out that the classification refers to the quality of the evidence not the degree of harm caused. So sausages and smoking are both class 1 carcinogens because there is really strong evidence they contribute to cancer rates, not because sausages are as harmful as smoking. The evidence can strongly show that there is a risk without that risk itself being massive (and with regards to bowel cancer and processed meat, the risk lies mainly in eating those products in very large quantities, not sausages and chips for tea once a week)

They feature once a week for us usually and are Heck sausages in a casserole where the actual sausage:person ratio isn’t all that. This is because it’s joined by 5 kinds of veg and beans.

Rest of the week is chicken and turkey and chicken and chicken and veggies and fish, so we reckon that’s fine….

chorizo..unless fresh its sausage

Really? They're very obviously not meat...

Ugh god no. Awful shit "food".

could you give him home made meat balls as an alternative?

and there are good quality organic sausages which may not be as bad?

I mean who am I to say anything, I am a sausage fiend... I scoff Richmond vegan ones like there is no tomorrow, and that's a UPF

Yes because between two fussy kids, husband who is a massive carnivore and doesn't eat salad or fish, and me with a wheat intolerance it's nearly impossible to find things that work for everyone...