With the holiday season underway, you may be thinking about the types of foods you’ll be eating and serving. Which ones are healthy and which ones aren’t? Is ham good for you? Is turkey?
It’s true that a bit holiday meal is more about indulging than creating a solid nutritional balance, but there’s still value in knowing what is and is not a nutritious food. Understanding is ham good for you or not, for example, can help you decide on your portion size and how much of it you want to serve.
Asking yourself is ham good for you and knowing the answer can also help you to purchase the right one in the first place. Choosing a lower sodium or extra lean version will help you to slash the calories and avoid unnecessary sodium.
Let’s take a closer look at what ham has to offer. A 3 ounce serving of regular boneless and roasted ham with a typical glaze comes with 151 calories. Of that, there are 7.7 grams of fat (2.7 grams of which is saturated fat). It gives you 50 milligrams of cholesterol. That said, it also provides 19.2 grams of protein.
That means that a 3 ounce serving already gives you 38 percent of the protein you need in a day. While that wouldn’t seem bad, it doesn’t look quite as good when you see that it also provides 17 percent of your daily cholesterol, 12 percent of your daily fat, and 14 percent of saturated fat.
If you choose an extra lean ham, you’ll slash 3 grams of fat, 1.2 grams of saturated fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol and 28 calories. Considering that most people will eat more than 3 ounces of ham, that’s a meaningful difference.
Ham will provide you with some great nutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals. In it, you’ll gain lots of thiamine, as well as a good amount of niacin, riboflavin, vitamins B6 and 12, as well as some phosphorus and zinc, among others.
Where ham can become problematic is in its processing. For one thing, it contains a huge amount of sodium. For every 3 ounces, you’ll take in a whopping 1,275 milligrams of sodium. That’s nearly the full amount of sodium recommended for a person who has high blood pressure. For someone with healthy blood pressure, it’s still over half of the recommended daily limit.
Furthermore, a growing body of research has been indicating that eating processed meat comes with a slew of health risks. These include everything from cardiovascular risks to a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes or even certain types of cancers.
