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Comment by albertgoeswoof | Hacker News Reader

Regarding processed meat, what part of the processing makes the meat unhealthy? Or is it something related to how processed meat is often consumed vs unprocessed meat?

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Curing with nitrites is not particularly healthy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curing_(food_preservation)#Nit...

Smoking is probably not good either.

Not to speak about the amount of antibiotics in meat probably [1][2][3]

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/opinion/antibiotics-and-t... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/05/most-... [3] https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/06/antibiotics-are-...

The problem are not the antibiotics in meat but bacteria resistant to them because of their use/abuse.

From the WHO stuff that was released a few years ago, I understood that "nasty processing" really only meant where nitrites were used (to preserve meat)?

And as someone who has butchered a pig, made sausages and bacon I can assure you that for a lot of it the nitrates are really the only difference between those and other forms of meat.

I guess the curing time could also be relevant but I don't believe there is anything to suggest that curing time is an issue.

Knowing this I was wondering for ages "surely it can only be the nitrates" and that seemed to be the case. It is also possible to buy bacon safely cured without nitrates now too.

It's all the additional steps and products added. A lot of processed meat are juste a slime of bones, skin, organs, ligaments whatever was left on the carcass of the animal. On top of that it comes from low quality (cheap) animals in the first place which doesn't help.

It's like eating a fruit vs drinking a juice, or eating raw veggies vs a broth. The original material is the same but it doesn't mean it holds the same benefits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9il0DVhT86E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NzUm7UEEIY

I don't believe that this matters. Why would it? Offal has great nutritional value. The inuit did perfectly well on an all-meat diet. The issue is more likely curing with nitrites and smoking.

>It's like eating a fruit vs drinking a juice

Another thing that doesn't matter. What exactly do you think magically happens when you put an orange into a blender and mix with a bit of water that would make it lose its nutritional value?

Inuit did not did well on an all meat died (btw, they also ate seaweed). Their life expectancy was much lower and they had higher instances of cardiac events. They did survive, that is true, and humans can survive on very different diets, but they did not trive.

> I don't believe that this matters

You're free to believe what you want. A slime of chicken skin, fat and ligaments isn't digested the same way as a chunk of chicken breast. The nutritional values are just a small part of a big equation.

> Another thing that doesn't matter. What exactly do you think magically happens

Many things happen and none of them are magical. The glycemic index of a raw fruit isn't the same as a juice from the same fruit for example, you don't get the fibers, &c.

> The inuit did perfectly well on an all-meat diet.

That's another side of my point, they evolved on that diet, most people didn't. Do you think the lifestyle of the average first worlder has anything to do with inuit lifestyle?

>Many things happen and none of them are magical. The glycemic index of a raw fruit isn't the same as a juice from the same fruit for example, you don't get the fibers, &c.

Only if you buy a juice concentrate. Making your own juice is equivalent to chewing an orange.

>You're free to believe what you want. A slime of chicken skin, fat and ligaments isn't digested the same way as a chunk of chicken breast. The nutritional values are just a small part of a big equation.

Of course not, I'm not arguing for that. What I am arguing for is that there's nothing inherently unhealthy about eating any of those things, and that offal is actually very nutritious.

>That's another side of my point, they evolved on that diet, most people didn't. Do you think the lifestyle of the average first worlder has anything to do with inuit lifestyle?

If an American adopted the diet of an inuit in such a way that their caloric needs are satisfied then I doubt it would matter. It is definitely possible that the inuit have evolved in some ways to accomodate for their diet, do you have any sources for that?

The issue with fruit juice is that they often remove the healthy but less tasty part, like the pulp of an orange or the skin of an apple

Regarding fruit juice Vs fruit I remember hearing about the cell walls and sugar and how in making the juice it destroyed the cells releasing sugar or something.

>A lot of processed meat are juste a slime of bones, skin, organs, ligaments whatever was left on the carcass of the animal.

All of these are healthy.

They might sound "disgusting" for modern consumers accustomed to 100% white meat, but none of them are harmful. In fact, bone marrow, skin, and organ meat contain many micronutrients that are less abundant in regular white meat, including vitamin A, B12 and collagen.

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