If you are a lover of meat, whether it’s salami, hotdogs, or lunch meats, or are even thinking about starting a carnivore diet, I’m going to break down some things you’re going to want to watch out for.
What is hidden in some packaged meats that should concern you, especially things like pink slime and white slime, and I’m going to explain what exactly those are in a moment.
This is in Slim Jims…
I looked at Slim Jims, and their packaging says that they have 6 grams of protein. You may be thinking that’s a pretty good snack to have.
However, whenever you’re looking at a food or drink, you always want to go to the back to look at the ingredients.
In the ingredients label, it actually says that there’s only 1 gram of protein.
It only has 2 grams of sugar, but there are 3.5 servings, so you’re looking at 7 grams of sugar.
In the ingredients, they list beef, pork, and mechanically separated chicken, which scares me because I wonder where that even came from.
We’re combining 3 different types of meat, so it’s not going to be from a top-quality cut.They’re likely from what’s called a pink meat paste, which is a slime that holds the meat together.
Separated Meats
There are 3 different types of separated meat that you want to watch out for:
- Lean Finely Textured Beef
- Mechanically Separated Meat
- Advanced Meat Recovery
Lean Finely Textured Beef
This is referred to as “pink slime,” and it actually went viral years ago.
Pink slime is processed beef trimmings and recovered materials from carcasses like fat and connective tissue.
They grind that all up and put it into a burger or meatloaf that you’re buying and eating.
All of the trimmings are heated up to 100 degrees and spun in a centrifuge, and the fat is removed.
The remaining beef bits are treated with ammonium hydroxide.
This kills bacteria like E-coli and salmonella, but it’s killing the good bacteria inside of you as well.
From there, they’re ground up and frozen into blocks, and those are used to make a lot of beef patties.
Mechanically separated beef is actually banned from human consumption.
Lean finely textured beef is supposedly safe, but it doesn’t sound that safe based on how they make it.
Mechanically Separated Meat
This refers mostly to chicken and pork. It’s a paste- and butter-like meat product that’s referred to as “white slime.”
White slime comes from the animal carcasses being forced through a device at high pressure that separates bones from edible meat.
The USDA does help by limiting the amount of bone that is allowed in the end product, but bone still ends up in there.
Manufacturers have to label this as mechanically separated, but where mechanically separated beef has been outlawed because of bacteria, this meat is still being sold.
Advanced Meat Recovery
Just like it sounds, advanced meat recovery refers to the remains of an animal that are scraped off of the bone.
They have to be careful about how much bone ends up in the final product because if there’s too much, it will end up as mechanically separated beef.
A lot of times this is just labeled as beef or ground pork, but the USDA stepped in and said that companies can’t include the spinal cord of the animal, which is a relief.
This is what a lot of processed meats are made of, which is why you need to be careful with what meat you’re buying.
So when it comes to Slim Jims, their 3rd ingredient is already very questionable meat.
Soy
Soy has become very prevalent in our food supply, and is responsible for roughly 10% of the calories that we’re eating daily.
Slim Jims include a lot of soy in their product, through soy flour, hydrolyzed soy protein, and soy lecithin.
If you really want soy, you can get it non-GMO or organic through a clean sauce or amino sauce.
If you’re not doing that, soy is tied to a lot of negatives that you may want to stay away from.
Soy is tied to carcinogens, specifically glyphosate, which is an herbicide that is sprayed on the soybean itself and can end up in you.
Glyphosate has been linked to types of cancer.
In fact, a lawsuit against Roundup, which contains glyphosate, alleges that it caused a form of blood cancer.
Soy also creates a lot of inflammation, which we don’t need any more of.
It can also create an itchy throat and mineral deficiencies, so if you’re having issues with headaches, cramping, or itching, you could just be eating too much soy.
I don’t think about soy when eating a beef stick, which is why I’m giving you this information so you can look for it in your processed meats.
Sugar
The Slim Jims also contain corn syrup, which is straight-up sugar, and is where the 7 grams of sugar is probably coming from.
That corn syrup is going to immediately hit the liver and create high triglycerides and fatty liver.
Dextrose is another form of sugar, which is likely from corn, although it might have been okay if it was from tapioca.
Other ingredients like maltodextrin and malt barley are going to turn right into sugar.
You’re trying to eat a beef stick that says that it’s keto-friendly on Amazon, but there are 7 grams of sugar in each stick.
Sodium Nitrite
The main ingredient I want to point out in Slim Jims is sodium nitrite.
Sodium nitrite is an ingredient that acts as a preservative, protects against the growth of bacteria, and provides a salty flavor.
This is the main ingredient you want to watch out for if you’re buying processed meats.
Make sure there are no nitrites included.
Nitrite contains cancer-causing compounds linked specifically to pancreatic cancer, and also tied to prostate cancer.
Nitrate has also been linked to type 1 diabetes and limits your oxygen transportation and supply, which can impact your blood cells and create anemia.
This can all lead to Alzheimer’s because you’re not getting proper oxygen to the brain, which accelerates neurodegeneration.
There are actually forums online of people who want to harm themselves and are using sodium nitrite powder because it’s so toxic it can be used to take one’s life.
If you’re not paying attention, the processed meats you’re eating start to add up, and you could put yourself in a dangerous situation.
If you’re into a carnivore diet or just love eating meat but don’t know where you can get clean options, let me show you a healthy alternative to Slim Jims.
Country Archer
Country Archer pays attention to the quality of the meat and their ingredients.
Right in the title, they put 100% Grass-Fed, which helps balance the omega-3 and omega-6, anti-inflammatory ratio inside of the animal.
On the ingredient label, they even say “proud of these ingredients” and here’s what they include.
They use grass-fed beef, water, and sea salt.
This means they’re using real salt, which I like because they hold a lot more mineral content that a lot of us are lacking.
They also have encapsulated lactic acid which protects the meat and cultured celery powder, which is good for stomach acid.
You can actually juice celery and incorporate it into your health regimen.
There’s also garlic powder, which is good for cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipids inside of your system.
There’s red pepper, which is a good one unless you have a sensitivity to nightshade vegetables, and black pepper that will help the absorption of ingredients.
Finally, there’s a beef collagen casing with paprika and beta-carotene.
I feel a lot better about eating this as opposed to eating pink slime, white slime, or meat that had to be stripped from the bone.
If you’re eating any kind of hotdog, salami, or processed meat, check for these ingredients, especially sodium nitrite, and avoid them.If you need more info on some of this, the USDA has definitions that you can look into further.
