The Good And The Bad In Processed Meat Shopping

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When buying meat, the focus should be on getting the freshest cuts and shopping for something that can boost the nutrition of one’s meals. Experts typically warn against eating high amounts of processed meats such as sausages and pies, promoting meat in its wholesome, natural and untouched form.

But if one desires to eat processed meat, the Weston A. Price Foundation offers some healthy tips. It favors sausage, bacon, and processed meats from animals (preferably soy-free and GMO-free) that are allowed to graze, and processed without additives. These include pastured meats cured with salt, a small amount of sugar, and are naturally smoked. Also deemed acceptable are pastured meats cured with sodium nitrite and added sodium erythorbates or ascorbates, which are antioxidants required by the US Department of Agriculture.

Good options include sausage, bacon, and processed meats made using ingredients such as celery juice or powder, spinach juice or powder, carrot juice or powder, beet juice or powder, and sodium nitrate – but without MSG and similar additives.

When buying processed meats, one should steer clear of most commercial sausage, bacon, and processed meats that contain MSG, smoke flavoring, liquid smoke, dry milk powder, or high amounts of additives. It is also advisable to avoid processed meats that are high pressure treated.

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In general, one is recommended to buy meats that are grass-fed, beef with a rich red color, and with a bit of marbling where the fat runs through the meat in white veins. Good grass-fed meat will also be firm, its fat a buttery yellow. The animal should be raised in healthy and human conditions, free of growth-promoting hormones and chemicals.

Geoffrey Morell co-founded the Weston A. Price Foundation back in 1999 and today co-owns P.A. Bowen Farmstead, a company raising pasture-fed livestock and organically grown species. Read more on this page.