Thread: From the "No ****, Sherlock" files...processed meats are bad!

Jo, do not live in fear.

a) Keep the bacon eating to a minimum. Maybe once a month.

b) If you give up booze I'll hunt you down and douse you with Jagermeister.

c) Keep the bacon eating to a minimum. Maybe twice a month.

d) Keep the bacon eating after drinking Jagermeister to a minimum. Maybe only during Frozen Fury 2010.

e) If you give up bacon I will hunt you down with two pounds of bacon, a head of lettuce, a jar of mayo, four tomatoes, a loaf of white bread, and I will break down your door and make delicious BLTs until the aroma wakes you...

*This ad sponsored by Farmer John, Jagermeister and Sumi

Originally Posted by So Sumi

Jo, do not live in fear.

a) Keep the bacon eating to a minimum. Maybe once a month.

b) If you give up booze I'll hunt you down and douse you with Jagermeister.

c) Keep the bacon eating to a minimum. Maybe twice a month.

d) Keep the bacon eating after drinking Jagermeister to a minimum. Maybe only during Frozen Fury 2010.

e) If you give up bacon I will hunt you down with two pounds of bacon, a head of lettuce, a jar of mayo, four tomatoes, a loaf of white bread, and I will break down your door and make delicious BLTs until the aroma wakes you...

*This ad sponsored by Farmer John, Jagermeister and Sumi

That does it!! I'm giving up bacon and booze.















(I could use some free Jager and BLTs. Hee hee...)

I'm seriously addicted to this.

You do know, don't you, that the article here says it's processed meats that are the problem, and that it's related not only to preservative additions, but the HIGH SODIUM content that makes them so unhealthful?

A serving of two slices of Farmer John Bacon has 280 grams of sodium, 3 grams of saturated fat and 70 calories.

Two slices of your healthy sounding bacon ... well it's still bacon. They brine and cure it just like all the other bacon and it comes out to 140 calories, 5 grams of saturated fat and 280 grams of sodium.

The bottom line is that it's STILL bacon and it's STILL processed meat. And it might be more dangerous because of ecoli and botulism concerns ...

Originally Posted by lunchbox

it actually tastes better. ever since I got pregnant I cut out meats with nitrates because I read something that said to avoid it, I forget why now. anyway, I had to find alternatives and this one looked like it came from a happier pig: no anitbiotics, no hormones and fed with vegetarian feed.

duh, it's not like I eat this stuff everyday. I, personally, consider it healthier because it lacks the chemicals. it's fried at a high temp and being as it's from a happy pig farm, I'm assuming the e. coli risk isn't as high.
I never claimed it had less sodium or fat. I was just saying maybe the lack of chemical preservative takes a small factor out of the issue the article brings up over processed meats. I couldn't have regular bacon for a while anyway as I said I was pregnant. now that I've found something that tastes better than farmer johns and is raised in better environs, why go back?

I actually try my best to buy meats that are raised without hormones or antibiotics and aren't chemically treated as I want to avoid having that s*** go through my kid's system as much as possible.

Originally Posted by lunchbox

duh, it's not like I eat this stuff everyday. I, personally, consider it healthier because it lacks the chemicals. it's fried at a high temp and being as it's from a happy pig farm, I'm assuming the e. coli risk isn't as high.
I never claimed it had less sodium or fat. I was just saying maybe the lack of chemical preservative takes a small factor out of the issue the article brings up over processed meats. I couldn't have regular bacon for a while anyway as I said I was pregnant. now that I've found something that tastes better than farmer johns and is raised in better environs, why go back?

I actually try my best to buy meats that are raised without hormones or antibiotics and aren't chemically treated as I want to avoid having that s*** go through my kid's system as much as possible.

Yeah, well just so you know that your healthy bacon is twice as fattening and just as "cured" as the other stuff.

You gotta always watch anything billed as "healthy". That usually means they are full of *****. Like "snackwells" or something.

I think most beef and pork is now raised on corn. The ecoli and madcow stopped most of the blood and guts fed cannibal practices.

In the meantime, "Cornfed" used to make us think of something good, but now most people know that cornfed is the sugar/fat laden gruel they put these antibiotic-laden cows on to get them as fat and marbly as possible. It's highly processed crapola, and if you eat cornfed beef, you pretty much could just be adding some protein bars to your box of Frosted Flakes every morning. Oh, and a dose of antibiotics.

So, finding grass-fed is big. But beware, they'll call them grass-fed but then they'll be CORN-finished without saying so and you are still eating crap. They'll also live most of their 12 month long life in feedlots just eating and walking around very little in mud and feces. Grass fed and Grass finished or 100% grass fed or something is what you want.

Oh, and your Niman Ranch? That's a thing of the past too. Those cows are being raised on feedlots and fed antimicrobials instead of antibiotics, which is not really any different. Old Man Niman was bought out a couple of years ago and even HE won't eat Niman Ranch products anymore. Here's an excerpt:

After Natural Food (my edit - that's the corporation who bought him out, doing business under a name designed to sell stuff to unwary consumers) that came on the scene, they sold the Niman Ranch feedlot and began finishing the cattle in commercial lots. Niman complained that there was no way to guarantee that Niman Ranch's cattle weren't eating the same food fed to other cattle, raised on a less stringent protocol.

"The company-owned feedlot was sold in 2008 because it was not financially viable," Swain wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. "The feedlots we work with today are required to follow the same high animal husbandry practices for our cattle as those followed in the previously company-owned feedlot."

Use of antimicrobials

Niman also battled with the new management over the use of antimicrobials, drugs that kill bacteria. While the substances are not classified by the USDA as an antibiotic, Niman says they work in the same way and are not natural. Under his leadership, they were never used.

"The bottom line on this point is that we once had the strictest feed standards in the industry as well as the highest humane animal treatment protocols," Niman angrily wrote the board in a 2007 memo. "Our standards were always based on several major concerns including: the health and well-being of the animal, human health and the environment."


In another 2007 memo to Swain, Niman charged the company with treating the cattle inhumanely, including transporting them nearly 1,300 miles, forcing them to stand in cramped quarters for more than 24 hours, to the slaughterhouse. He said they had lost at least six cattle on those trips.

"The time an animal spends in transit is well under the guidelines adopted by USDA and our goal is to minimize shipping distances," Swain countered in an e-mail, adding that it would be rare that they would transport their animals 1,300 miles. But "cattle shipped over 500 miles are shipped a day earlier and upon arrival are put on feed and water for 24 hours to rehydrate and rest."

Swain said the six cattle that died were not Niman Ranch's, but those of ranchers asking to borrow space in their trucks.


Niman's faith in the company that will still bear his name is gone, but his faith in raising food sustainably, and for profit, has never been stronger. Besides raising grass-fed beef and goats, he and his wife, Nicolette, whom he married in 2003, think heritage turkeys just might be the ticket.

Last year they carted 225 poults (baby turkeys) in the back seat of their car from the Midwest to start their breeding flock. By Thanksgiving they'll be in business.

"Frankly, we think it might be the most profitable enterprise so far," Niman said. As for Niman Ranch: "I'm proud of it. It was a pioneer effort that changed the way people think about their food."



Read more: Niman Ranch founder challenges new owners

thanks for ruining it for me. we're going to be vegetarians now.

in all seriousness, i'm not really concerned about fat. my whole family is skinny. the only thing in our family history is stomach cancer on husband's side so that's part of my thing about avoiding nitrates. we only eat meat half the week and i think, in my situation, the best you can do is buy the healthiest meat you can find without actually having to investigate the slaughterhouse yourself. thanks for the concern though!

Actually the older I get, the more that I drink.

And I don't eat pork so I don't eat bacon. Lol!

I am a dolphin of many contradictions.

How healthy is processed cheese?

Originally Posted by lunchbox

thanks for ruining it for me. we're going to be vegetarians now.

in all seriousness, i'm not really concerned about fat. my whole family is skinny. the only thing in our family history is stomach cancer on husband's side so that's part of my thing about avoiding nitrates. we only eat meat half the week and i think, in my situation, the best you can do is buy the healthiest meat you can find without actually having to investigate the slaughterhouse yourself. thanks for the concern though!

I'm not ranting about weight gain or fat, I'm ranting about food manufacturers lying about their products and convincing people that a trip to Trader Joes or Whole Foods means you are eating healthy. It can, but a lot of that stuff is CRAP and the food industry has got "organic" to be almost a meaningless title. And "free range" is totally bastardized. All that means is that they have to have "access" to a range which can just be muddy and poopy and that they never use anyway.

FAT, meanwhile, is good for you! And it doesn't make you fat any more than carbs or protein. That rant of mine was on the fatty/sugary/fructose corn gruel fed to cows, which has to do with the way they process corn, removing much of it's nutrients, then feed it to cows so the cows will have lots of fat on them and then taste good at the cheapest possible cost. It's not the way cows were made to eat - all processed corn living in poop and standing arm to arm. And it's not the way we were made to eat. That's why they have to load them up with antibiotics cause they get sick and die.

The article meanwhile was about a link between processed meats and heart disease/diabetes. Your bacon is a processed meat so according to the limits of the study, is no healthier (at least in what this study looked for) than other processed meats. That's all I was pointing out - that switching to dry-cured bacon doesn't get you out of this increased risk.

The moral being "try to eat less processed meat".