By Nwokolo Collins
It is often said that you are what you eat, so a healthy person should expect to eat healthy food. Our nutrition should be based on our health needs or even health challenges. For example, diabetic patients are advised to consume foods with low glycemic index. You should not just eat whatever you feel like, whenever you feel like. This goes especially for one of the most consumed food, meat. I love meat, and am very sure you do too. It is delicious and we always look forward to eating it except you are a vegetarian or vegan. But as tantalizing as meat can be, there are some types of it that are unhealthy for us. In this article, we’ll look at 5 unhealthy meats that you should avoid eating. Most of these meats are processed meats and they contain harmful substances.
Hot dogs
Hot dogs are highly processed meat, and are very unhealthy. Hot dogs are made with chicken, pork and steak trimmings that are added with additives like salt and corn syrup, which make them bad.
A single hot dog contains 410mg of sodium, because it contains high amount of salt used for preservation. Consuming such meat can increase the risk if getting hypertension and heart diseases.
Organ meat: Liver
Liver, in this context is an organ meat, found in animals. There are many other organ meats, we consume, but the liver is widely consumed and very unhealthy.
Remember that the liver is an excretory organ that rids the body of toxins. So, when you consume liver meat, you are ingesting the toxins as well. This can be harmful the body, and people with cholesterol problems should avoid liver or other organ meat.
Bacon
Bacon contains a lot of calories, 60 percent of which are unhealthy fat. This explains why 30g of bacon contains 30 milligrams of cholesterol. Bacon is bad for people with heart diseases and stroke. It also contains a very high amount of sodium
Corned beef
Corned beef is a widely consumed processed meat and is often used as an ingredient in salad. However, corned beef is unhealthy, not just because of the way it is processed but the way it was made.
Corned beef contains a lot of calories, saturated fat and sodium. When bacon is fried, it forms a substance called nitrosamine. Studies show that nitrosamines may increase the risk of stomach and bowel cancer.
Fried catfish
Fried catfish is often processed by deep frying under high temperatures. Most foods that are preserved or prepared under high temperatures are said to produce carcinogens that lead to cancer.
Catfish also contain harmful toxins like mercury and lead, because live near the bottom of the water.
Conclusion
A healthy person will eat healthy food and avoid or reduce the intake of unhealthy ones. They’re a lot very healthy meats you can eat. So don’t feel like you are limited, learn to make healthy choices, so you can be healthy.
