{"id":60,"date":"2009-12-23T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/?p=60"},"modified":"2010-02-26T14:59:58","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T22:59:58","slug":"the-trouble-with-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/23\/the-trouble-with-ham\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Ham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul likes ham. I mean, he really<\/em> likes it. Every day he has at least one ham sandwich. He\u2019s been making the same lunch for about fifteen years \u2013 a cookie, a carrot, a baggie of pretzels, and ham on sourdough with mustard on both pieces of bread and cheddar cheese. Every now and then, if he really wants to stir things up, he adds a piece of roast chicken or turkey. But there is always ham. You can be sure of that.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a utilitarian eater and in general, I\u2019m in favor of his lunch-making ham-eating habits. After all, it has got to be better (for the bank account if nothing else) than eating out every day.<\/p>\n

But the other day I was in bed, listening to some morning disc jockey talk about a study that followed 120,000 men for 6.3 years and identified a significantly higher risk of stomach cancer for men who ate more than two servings of processed meats per week.<\/p>\n

Uh-oh. I walked straight from our room to the computer in the kitchen and Googled the study. Nothing. Paul stood at the counter, making his death sandwich. I reminded him how good a tuna sandwich could be. He slapped a slice of cheddar into his mouth and looked at me suspiciously.<\/p>\n

Later, when I was dressed and sitting at my desk, I resumed the search. I still couldn\u2019t find anything about this study but I did find a bevy of other ham-related information. I\u2019m guessing the evil of processed meats has something to do with nitrates but I\u2019m not sure what. Here\u2019s what I learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sodium nitrate is added to meats in the curing process to delay the development of bacteria, rancidity, odors and, to bring out the meats flavor and color. The American Cancer Society states that \u201cNitrates and nitrites are substances commonly found in cured meats. They can be converted by certain bacteria, such as H. pylori<\/em>, into compounds that have been found to cause stomach cancer in animals.\u201d (link to\u00a0study)<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I guess there\u2019s some common sense to be applied here. Too much of any one thing can be bad. A ham sandwich every day<\/em> for fifteen years can\u2019t be right. Even too much broccoli can be bad (makes me gassy, sorry, TMI, anyhoo\u2026).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One study of 175,000 men conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) found that over nine years, 20 percent of men with the highest intakes of processed meat were 12 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer. When the researchers broke the men\u2019s diet information down further they found that white processed meats, like poultry cold cuts, were not linked to a higher risk of prostate cancer. (link to study)<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the point where I officially become not okay with the ham-sandwich-every-day program. I\u2019ll sing the praises of tuna salad (I know, mercury) or almond butter and apple butter mixed with miso paste. Or, if that\u2019s too weird for him, which it is, why not just a plain PB&J? It\u2019s not just for kids. I\u2019ll offer to buy his favorite jam. Notice, I offer to go to the store but that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

Another study of 200,000 men and women conducted by biochemist Ute Nothlings found that those who consumed the greatest amount of processed meats had a 67 percent higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer than those with the lowest consumption. A diet rich in pork and red meat also increased pancreatic cancer risk by about 50 percent. The American Meat Institute claims that this study has not been peer-reviewed. (link to study)<\/a><\/p>\n

By now it\u2019s clear that Paul\u2019s long-standing ham-eating habit must be broken.<\/p>\n

When I told one of my HMN friends about all this she said, \u201cWell, the good news is that he\u2019s clearly a creature of habit. You can be sure he\u2019ll never leave you \u2013 at least not alive anyway.\u201d There\u2019s always that.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ll even start making his damn sandwich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul likes ham. I mean, he really likes it. Every day he has at least one ham sandwich. He\u2019s been making the same lunch for about fifteen years \u2013 a cookie, a carrot, a baggie of pretzels, and ham on sourdough with mustard on both pieces of bread and cheddar cheese. Every now and then, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer","category-hmn-reports","category-pablo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}