More Unhealthy Food Additives #149

We will look at why some foods are not healthy for you .

During the American Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Holiday season there is one food which is a common tradition  in many households.  And that is a holiday ham.  Normally a cured, fully pre-cooked, honey or some other form of a sweet glazed ham is usually served.  There are many retail brands that supply these holiday hams.  I have selected one of the most common brands available throughout the country.  The glaze and curing method is also one of the most common to other popular brands.

The package term "Honey Glazed" would lead you to expect that honey is applied to the ham during the curing or cooking period to enhance the taste and appearance. 

The following is listed on the product as the glaze used;
Maltodextrin which is a common food additive. It is a easily digestible carbohydrate made from rice, corn, or potato starch.   Food-Starch Modified.  Is used as a thickening agent or processed food stabilizer.  It is manufactured by chemically treating food starch.  Dextrose which is a simple form of glucose.   Honey Powder which is a stabilizer processed from drying honey.  Refiners Syrup, a thick syrup which is a by-product of refining cane sugar.  It contains no vitamins or nutrients from the sugar cane and is used for its sweet taste.   These are the ingredients used to produce a so called honey glaze.

Curing additives used are quite different and as follows.   Sodium Lactate is the sodium salt of lactate which are produced through the fermentation of sugar.  Sodium Phosphates is a sodium salt of phosphoric acid.  It is used in food processing as a means of attracting and absorbing water from the product.   Sodium Diacetate is used as a preservative.   It is also used in the agriculture industry to control mold and bacteria in stored grains.   It is also referred to as a pesticide.   Sodium Erythorbate is also used as a food preservative and has zero nutritional value.  When researching you will find it has a list of side effects that include headaches, fatigue, and dizziness.   And the last ingredient is Sodium Nitrite which is commonly used in preserving and curing processed meats.  It has also been implicated in some research as possibly causing cancer.

You could say well there are a lot of if and buts here and be right if you are trying to prove a case of the ham being healthy to eat based on these facts only.   However if you consider does ham, being a red meat, increase my cholesterol your answer is yes.  Are each of these chemicals dangerous to me?  Well based on conclusive research and accepting these chemical additive products as being widely used you could conclude it is not harmful.   And I think that is not accurate.   You have to consider these additives are all commonly used in food processing.  No we may eat this ham only once a year but these additives you are probably eating daily in most meats you eat and so many of the other processed snack foods you consume.   That is where you can begin to build a case of hey, this is not good food for my body to be processing.  There is only so much salt, sugar and other chemicals your body can safely process daily.  The over abundance will lead to other health issues.  See postings  #74 1/27/12.....#130 8/30/12.....#85 3/7/12.....

The result of all of this is to encourage you to think about the foods you eat and decide what is unhealthy for your cardiovascular health.    Believe me when researching for this article I found information that lead to research concerning causes of cancer, diabetes. and other health issues.