Hi, this is Monica Reinagel, and you're listening to the Nutrition Diva

podcast. Thanks for joining me. Catherine writes, we all know that processed meat isn't good for us, but what exactly

is the definition of processed meat?

Is fresh sausage from the butcher with no added chemicals still processed?

How about the organic lunchmeats that have no added preservatives?

And what about local bacon with no added nitrites or nitrates?

Catherine is certainly not alone in her confusion about processed meat.

This is always a hot topic among those who do my 30-day nutrition

upgrade program, for example.

The daily quiz that we use in that program asks, among other things,

whether you ate any cured meats before giving you a nutrition grade for that day. And a lot of people

hope that buying uncured bacon or hot dogs will get them off the hook on that question.

Well, today, we're going to try to clear up the confusion about what does and does not count as processed meat and why we should even care once and for all.

And now what is the definition of processed meat?

Well the reason it's hard to find a hard and fast

definition for processed meat is that there isn't one.

This term is defined a little bit differently by everyone.

The American Institute for Cancer Research defines processed meat as meat preserved by

smoking, curing, or salting, or the addition of chemical preservatives.

The World Health Organization has a slightly broader definition.

It's meat that has been transformed through salting, curing,

fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve

...