Processed Meat Essay

1583 Words7 Pages
Processed Meat Processed Meat In America today our health controversy comes from our eating habits and consumption of what we call the “great American food” (Gillooly, 2011) Although American food is not as tasty or as savory as it once was everything that is behind that delicious food is nothing but bad news for out health. Processed meat has been compromised by the addition of hormones, additives, preservatives, unnatural genetic material or other chemical or heat treatments that alter or destroy the natural healthy enzymes, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Processed meats are defined as any meat preserved by smoking, curing, salting, or adding additional chemicals to extend a meat’s shelf life. (Hawley, 2010) Red meat is part of American’s daily diet and our health seems to cave in the more we consume it. Americans have not taken in consideration that processed meats are linked to many illness and need to learn before it’s too late. In this paper we will learned about heart disease, diabetes, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer and how they are associated to processed meat and what we can do to prevent them and still be able to eat meat. Even though meat has the ingredients and nutrients our body needs if the meat has been altered it loses all of its proteins and becomes what it is known as “pink slime”. (Gillooly, 2011) Pink slime is a lean finely texture beef filler treated with ammonia hydroxide to eliminate possible pathogens particularly e. coli and salmonella. (Theiss, 2012) The chemicals used for this procedure are the same ones we use for window cleaning and floor waxing. Companies who sell it call it “boneless lean beef trimming”. (Bloom, 2012) This pink slime is being used mainly for hamburger meat and it’s been associated with many fast food restaurants. McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell announced the rejection of this product and

More about Processed Meat Essay

Open Document