4 Dangerous Strange-Name Substances in Your Ham Sandwich That's Causing Health Problems

Humans get to eat from the food chain we learned about in Biology class.

Eating is what we do as part of our survival. You might say eating is a necessary evil.

In the age of fabulous restaurants and fancy cuisines, we eat from many strange tables, never giving it a second thought. But do we really know what we're eating? Our health problems are linked, in large part, to what we eat and how often we eat it.

Back in the day, when families raised farm animals for meat and vegetable gardens that kept us healthy and strong, we knew what we were eating.

A ham sandwich was a real ham sandwich made from the hog we killed and cured using nothing but salt. Which brings me to the substance of this post. Here's the story:

I'm not innocent of the above critique. In fact, I started this blog because a few weeks ago I experienced a sudden shortness of breath as if my bronchial passages were slowly closing. It was the scariest moment I can remember having. Fortunately for me, I'm already into being conscious of what I eat. So it wasn't difficult to recognize the culprit. 

Eating ham is not something I normally do. Nevertheless, we had been on the road, a lunch had been packed for us and I had no idea what it was until it was time to eat. However, it didn't matter because it had been a long drive and I was hungry to the point of weakness. 

Well, it wasn't long before I was struggling to breath. It was devastating! Naturally, I threw the sandwich in one direction and my arms and legs in another. Finally, I grabbed and began downing bottles of water. Surprisingly, the water eased my moment of struggle. Don't ask me how. All I can tell you is, water can do a lot of medicinal sh**t.

Being the food nut that I am, I asked what kind of meat that was. Luckily for me, they pointed to the cooler where an unopened pack of it lay packed on ice, in case we needed more "nourishment" while on the road? Anyway, I began reading the ingredients--which weren't really ingredients at all, but a lot of hard-to-pronounce words that represented chemicals, which by the way, probably set my episode in motion. Yes. I pulled out my pad and pen and wrote them all down. And I couldn't wait to get home and start researching each one. 

Preservatives were in every component of the sandwich i.e. the bread, mayonaise, pickles and mustard. So we get double and triple doses of this stuff...but I digress.

I hope you're following me because now I'm going to share with you what I found while researching the contents of this particular brand of ham.

Before we go any further, I want to make it clear that this is not a campaign against a company. No. This is my way of sharing important information that could possibly save someone's life. I mean, being able to breathe is important, right?

Oh, and did I mention this might be a long post?

Chemical preservatives in cold cuts that might be causing you health problems:

• Sodium Phosphate is a food additive that serves as a preservative which is designed to help food last longer. However, it is reported that this chemical preservative causes serious kidney damage and possibly death. Depending on your overall health, you may experience some of these symptoms after eating something with sodium phosphate in it: increased thirst, bone or joint pain, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and diarrhea.
• Potassium Chloride is a substance used to treat low potassium blood levels, so why is ham packed in a solution containing it? Persons with kidney failure, Addison's disease or tissue injury should not ingest potassium chloride. But a person with these ailments can easily pick up something with this chemical in it, unaware of the danger. Side effects include confusion, anxiety, feeling like you might pass out, uneven heartbeat, extreme thirst, increased urination, leg discomfort, muscle weakness or limp feeling, black, tarry stools, coughing up blood or vomit that looks like coffee grounds.
• Sodium Propionate is a deliquescent crystalline salt used as a fungicide to disable mold growth in baked goods and dairy products. It is also used in vaginal creams. What? If that's the case, a slice of bread will do what the cream does. Sodium propionate is also used in a study of the eye infection. I don't even want to think about what it might be doing inside my intestines! Here's the toxicology data sheet on sodium propionate. Brace yourself.
• Sodium Benzoate is also a food preservative that is said to kill healthy cells and promote cancer. You can read about the various dangers of sodium benzoate here. This chemical is found in beverages, condiments, and various foods. In other words, it's all over the place. They say it's "safe in small doses."What does that mean?!!! It causes ADHD, asthma attacks, hypertension, headache, blurry vision, slowed heartbeat, drowsiness, skin rashes, chest tightness, restlessness and muscle cramps.

Get the picture?

These are only four of the strangely-named substances in your ham sandwich that's causing you health problems. Trust me, there are many more. 

I didn't even go into others like sodium diacetate, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrate, or calcium phosphate.

We have to eat to survive. And we're eating from everyone else's table, cramming our mouths full of tasty portions of slow death.

As for me, I'm changing my eating ways...again.

Researched and compiled by the blog author.
Copyright © 2015 by Peggy Hatchet James