Why Processed, Cured and Smoked Meats Aren't Paleo

As more and more people adopt the Paleo Diet, controversy has arisen as to which dietary elements actually comprise a contemporary “Paleo Diet”. Or more precisely, which current foods, food groups or food additives should be included or excluded in modern day diets as we try to emulate the nutritional characteristics of our pre-agricultural ancestors?

A number of popular-day and charismatic bloggers suggest that processed meats such as bacon and other cured, processed and smoked meats should be part of contemporary Paleo Diets on a daily basis (1-3).

Surprisingly, one of the contested elements that charismatic bloggers advocate (via their recommendation to eat processed meats and bacon) is salt (1-3). Look no further than Paleo Diet websites, blogs and cookbooks (1-3, 4-8) to find salt included in virtually all meal plans, menus and dietary recommendations given to the Paleo Diet community by so-called “experts” consisting of charismatic bloggers (1-3) and non-scientific authors (1-3, 4-8).

One of the primary sources of salt in the U.S. Diet comes from processed meats (9). I have previously spoken about the multitude of health problems associated with salt consumption. Please review my blogs showing the harmful effects of salt (10-16).

It is inconceivable how any rational person, much less leaders (1-3) in the Paleo Diet community could advocate the use of salt laden processed meats in contemporary Paleo Diets. High sodium diets are unequivocally recognized to promote high blood pressure, stroke and cardiovascular disease (9, 17-19). Further, more recent research shows that high salt diets increase the likelihood of autoimmune disease (20-23), immune dysfunction (24-29) and create a cellular environment that encourages cancer growth of all types (30-35).

Results

Listed below is a table of the salt content (both Na+ and K+ concentrations) of processed meats and their fresh unsalted counterparts. A potassium (K+) concentration greater than a Na+ (sodium) concentration of (>1.00) is healthful of which no processed meats exhibit, including bacon. Without being a nutritional scientist, you can see for yourself from the table below, that virtually all processed, cured and smoked meats represent a hazardous food which far exceed the human daily recommendation for sodium of 2300 mg (9, 17-19).

Cured Meats	Na+ mg/1000 kcal	K+ mg/1000 kcal	K+/Na+
Prosciutto Ham	13821	2615	0.19
Ham, cured	10313	2524	0.24
Smoked Beef Sliced	10166	2387	0.23
Beef Lunch Meat	9547	2632	0.28
Canadian Bacon, cured	8975	2191	0.24
Smoked Ham Sliced	8472	2086	0.25
Turkey Salami Cotto	7072	1477	0.21
Smoked Turkey Sliced	6850	2056	0.30
Turkey Salami	6830	1469	0.22
Beef Cotto Salami	6354	1006	0.16
Olive Loaf	6315	1264	0.20
Pastrami	6020	1429	0.24
Smoked Chicken Sliced	5782	1552	0.27
Chicken Lunch Meat	5554	920	0.17
Spam	5403	2414	0.45
Headcheese, Pork	5287	197	0.04
Salami Dry Sausage	5221	982	0.19
Beerwurst Sausage	5210	1063	0.20
Turkey Drumstick smoked	4980	1400	0.28
Genoa Salami	4706	861	0.18
Corned Beef	4518	578	0.13
Turkey Wing smoked	4507	1204	0.27
Beef Salami	4368	711	0.16
Bacon	4270	1044	0.24
Ham Lunch Meat	4222	1298	0.31
Vienna Sausage	4213	439	0.10
Mortadella	4006	524	0.13
Hot Dog Wiener	3759	524	0.14
Thuringer Sausage	3591	718	0.20
Braunschweiger	3547	609	0.17
Italian Sausage	3509	884	0.25
Summer Sausage	3481	484	0.14
Mettwurst Sausage	3471	874	0.25
Pepperoni Sausage	3346	565	0.17
Smokie links sausage Oscar Mayer	3334	596	0.18
Scrapple, Pork	3094	742	0.24
Knockwurst Sausage	3029	648	0.21
Kielbasa Sausage	2926	971	0.33
Chicken wings Barbequed	2915	900	0.31
Bratwurst	2855	953	0.33
Chorizo	2714	875	0.32
Pork link sausage	2694	1573	0.58
Liverwurst	2638	521	0.20
Turkey link sausage	2489	974	0.39
Bologna	2391	1023	0.43
Salt Pork, cured	1904	88	0.05
Blood sausage	1794	100	0.06
Bockwurst Sausage	1680	897	0.53
Pate de Foie Gras	1509	299	0.20
Goose liver pate, smoked	1509	299	0.20

Fresh, Unsalted Meats	Na+ mg/1000 kcal	K+ mg/1000 kcal	K+/Na+
Fresh, unsalted lamb loin	272	1430	5.25
Fresh, unsalted Beef Sirloin	324	1954	6.04
Fresh, unsalted Pork Sirloin	275	1778	6.47

Conclusions

Although, virtually all non-scientific, Paleo Diet bloggers (1-3, 4-8) advocate the use of added, mined salt to their recipes, menus and meals, there is absolutely no evolutionary data to support this viewpoint (36-39).

Indeed, the best available evidence supports the notion that elevated salt intake is directly responsible for increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke and cardiovascular disease (9, 17-19), increased risk for autoimmune disease (20-23), increased risk for immune dysfunction (24-29) and increased risk for cancer (30-35). This information is perhaps the most important issue where the Paleo Diet community is lost, confused and in error via the misinformation provided by non-scientific, ill-informed Paleo Diet Blogger (1-3, 4-8).

Cordially,
Loren

References

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