Sliced meat in packages

mademoiselle_r

Hi,
I am wondering if packaged cooked meats are healthy to be eating on a daily basis?

I had Anorexia but now I've gained 17kg and I have 2 meals a day (breakfast + dinner) and then snack on approximately 50g sliced crumbed ham (Denny brand, usually) with 1 crackerbread or 50g wafer sliced chicken (tesco brand) with 1 slice crackerbread three times a day, and I also eat a Fortecreme supplement atleast three times a day.

Are these meats really healthy to be eating though? Is it healthy protein?

I don't have the packages to hand but I know the salt content in total would amount to nearly 50% RDA- is this too high? I don't add salt to any of my other foods and generally eat quite clean foods... apart from pepsi max, which is my biggest downfall.

tightloop

Hi, to be honest you could be eating a lot worse, and a lot better. If you want to snack on sliced meats then I suggest getting sliced turkey, Lidl have lovely peppered turkey slices, deli style so they're not processed as much as those wafer thin meats. Also chicken slices, again available at Lidl and Aldi.

Both these meats are high in protein and low in fat, they're deli style as I've said so are cut from a real bird as opposed to minced up and processed heavily before being finely sliced and packaged as ham or whatever.

I don't really worry about salt content myself so maybe someone else could help you with that. Good luck with the healthy foods, they'll make you feel great!

Tiddlypeeps

There is nothing really wrong with those sliced deli meats, it all depends on what else you are eating. As long as you are getting sufficient calories, macro nutrients and micro nutrients then you are fine.

For example if your protein intake is lower than it should be then the chicken is a good choice but depending on how processed and fatty the particular brand of ham is it may not be the best choice for a snack. But if your protein levels are fine and fat levels are low or you are trying to eat more calories then the ham may actually be a better choice than chicken or other lean options.

Listen to your body, if you are sluggish and tired all the time you might need to adjust your diet. The same if you are gaining weight too slowly or quickly you might need to change something. If everything is going well, which it seems to be, then you should carry on as you are.

I wouldn't be too worried about the salt content unless the rest of your diet is fairly salt heavy. Recent studies are suggesting that salt isn't nearly as bad as previously thought unless you already have a pre-existing heart condition, so unless you do have a heart condition or are eating a lot of salt I wouldn't be worrying about it to much.

Well done on tackling the Anorexia btw

Vomit

Processed meats like that have a slow damaging effect on the bowel if consumed all the time. So my GP tells me anyway...