Sausages and cold meats in the diet of children

Sausages and cold cuts are widely used as a snack or quick dinners it refers option. However, sausages and cold meats should not be put in the same sack since they are not the same. In Guiainfantil.com we tell you what is the difference between them and what experts recommend regarding their consump

sausages and cold cuts are widely used as a snack or quick dinners it refers option. However, sausages and cold meats should not be put in the same sack since they are not the same.

In Guiainfantil.com we tell you what is the difference between them and what experts recommend regarding their consumption, especially in childhood.

What is the difference between sausage and cold cuts?

- Sausages, are meat products prepared from pieces of raw meat and fat cut into pieces that are seasoned with various species (paprika, pepper and garlic, mainly) and introduced or stuffed into natural or artificial casings for curing. The sausages include sausage, sausage, salami or fuet among others, and its curing period is very variable. In general, they contain higher levels of fat and lower amounts of protein than the prosciutto and emborrado loin.

- The cold meats on the contrary are, in general, pieces of salted and cooked meat. The ham, the palette and the turkey breast are, within this group, the highest quality. However, there are other cold meats that are made from pieces of meat and fat from different parts of the animal and to which you can add starches, dyes, gelatins, fats from other sources and animal connective tissue, processed and cooked. These meat derivatives, such as chopped, mortadella or boar head, are of lower quality and less recommendable, especially for their high salt and cholesterol levels, as well as containing colorants and additives, for example, as glutamate, used to enhance and homogenize the flavor or phosphates, which are used as preservatives.

Can I give my son sausage and cold cuts?

Sausages and cold meats, although they are not the same, if the recommendation of not consuming them too often can be generalized si, although the whole pieces (ham or cooked ham, for example) tend to be leaner and with a better quality fat , being the own of the meat piece. In addition, they usually contain, in general, less additives and be free of dyes, being the most recommended for the snack snack.And, the ham is the result of curing the back and front parts of the raw pork, in a controlled environment of temperature and humidity and covered by a certain amount of salt.

It is a highly protein food, salty and with a lot of fat, but considered healthy fat, because it is rich in unsaturated acids . In a similar way, and halfway between the serrano ham and the sausages, the embuchado loin is the spine of the pork seasoned in a casing for curing.But you do have to consider that

both deli meats and sausages usually have nitrites and nitrates in their composition . In the gastrointestinal tract, nitrates are combined with gastric juices producing nitrosamines, potentially carcinogenic.On the other hand, the presence of nitrites in the organism alters the oxidative state of iron in the hemoglobin, causing it to lose its ability to transport oxygen to the tissues. This abnormal form of hemoglobin is known as methemoglobin.

Methemoglobinemia is a rare but very dangerous disease, especially in childhood, since levels of methemoglobin in blood greater than 50% can have fatal consequences.