NewsIs my deli sandwich going to kill me?

Is my deli sandwich going to kill me?

I am a person of nostalgic lunchmeat experience: One of the deepest gustatory pleasures of my childhood involved stripping a bologna round of its red plastic casing, slicking on a generous smear of mayonnaise, twirling it into a rubbery tube — or a cone, in the occasional case of a pickle cameo — and quickly devouring it.

I still feel a flutter of longing when I clock festive pinks and yellows in a refrigerator case; every corned beef sandwich I’ve eaten since has probably been a Freudian attempt to recapture some of that magic.

So when I say lunchmeat is convenient and delicious, it’s from a place close to both my heart and my stomach, and completely without contempt.

But even I have to admit that deli meat has baggage. In large and varied studies, regularly eating processed meats — including cold cuts and hot dogs — leads to higher rates of cancers and cardiovascular disease.

These products are also at high risk for contamination with listeria — outbreaks of which have made headlines recently, including one involving tainted Boar’s Head liverwurst that has sickened 57 people and killed nine since July, and has prompted a wave of lawsuits. Listeria is a nasty little bug that can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and meningitis, and can be deadly in particularly vulnerable people.

Experts say there’s no amount of lunchmeat that’s healthy to eat. Still, out of convenience, pleasure, or pure sentimentality, it often remains on the menu. If you’re one of the many people with a special place in your gut for deli sandwiches, there are still ways to minimize their harm.

What that pastrami sandwich is doing to your body

Cold cuts are different from other kinds of meat in one important way: They’re processed in ways that delay spoilage. That processing involves a range of different methods, including drying (as in beef jerky), fermenting (as in many salamis and pepperonis), smoking (as in country ham), and curing with salt or other additives (as in many hot dogs and a wide range of lunchmeat).

Processing meat adds more to it than just shelf life.

Curing, often using nitrates and nitrites — preservatives that prevent spoilage and preserve meat’s pinkish color — and salt, is one of the more common ways food manufacturers extend the life of modern cold cuts. When they reach the gut, nitrates and nitrites can be converted into a variety of molecules, among them ones that can be harmful to your health. These compounds occur naturally in some foods, including leafy vegetables, but combining them with animal protein — especially with protein containing high levels of heme iron, like beef and pork — raises the chance they’ll transform into those bad actors.

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Smoking meat also changes its chemical composition.

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