deli meats

[Brandon Enos]

Ive read comments and blogs before saying that deli meats are substandard bc or preservatives and what not. Is this claim directed solely towards like oscar meyer (sp?) prepackaged stuff that hangs on the wall, or is it spread out to include meat cooked on premesis of the deli or grocerey store and then sliced and bagged when you tell them you want a pound of the black forest ham or whatever. Not a lot beats deli meat for conveinence and variety, but I do care about what I put in my body and dont want to consume a lot of chemicals. I wouldnt think the meat cooked, sliced, and packaged on site would be a worry, but you never know I guess.

[Frank Needham]

My personal observations on deli meats is they ain't what they used to be. Look at the ingredients they put in what is supposed to pass for deli meats nowadays, dextrose, corn syrup, maltodextrin, etc. About the only places I can find any processed meat without garbage in it is through some specialty outlet. Don't trust anything prepared at a standard grocery store. Maybe TJs but I'm not even sure about that.

[Jay Cohen]

Frank speaks the Truth.

Other then looking at great pork butts, brisket or other assorted un cooked meats, I don't even look in the deli meat case. Over processed, over priced, yuck x twice.
TJ's aint bad, but I do my own meat.

[Liam Dougherty Springer]

Applegate and Wellshire are both good options. IMO. I don't eat them often like hardly ever but I agree with you that for some the convenience of not needing to cook is that big a deal and in those cases I would recomend one of the above options.

Enjoy.

[Matt DeVoe]

I travel for a living and stick to paleo as best as I can, which occasionally means either a grocery store run or fast food.

I've found that Hormel makes a relatively decent quality "natural" line of deli meats, it's definitely no grass fed beef, but its nitrate free and the ingredients are *mostly* real.

That being said, many grocery stores now have pre-cooked turkeys/chickens whereby the only ingredients are meat and salt, often times for less $$ than the equivalent poundage of deli meats.

[Chris Salvato]

Originally Posted by Matt DeVoe

I travel for a living and stick to paleo as best as I can, which occasionally means either a grocery store run or fast food.

I've found that Hormel makes a relatively decent quality "natural" line of deli meats, it's definitely no grass fed beef, but its nitrate free and the ingredients are *mostly* real.

That being said, many grocery stores now have pre-cooked turkeys/chickens whereby the only ingredients are meat and salt, often times for less $$ than the equivalent poundage of deli meats.

Same thing here -- i do that all the time when I am on the road as a traveling salesman...

That said, you need to research your meats. I never looked into Hormel but Boar's Head is very good, as well....all meat, no preservatives. Need to do a bit of research and looking at ingredients lists, is all.