Amount Of Sodium In Cured Meat

[doongie]

Low sodium diets often suggest avoiding cured meats, the implication being they are high in sodium and have negative impact on said diet.
I’ve done some math and am not so sure I agree the impact is very significant When it comes to home made cured meats.
Am I missing something here?

Basic values:
1oz = 28g
1kg = 1000g
1kg = 35.71 oz (1000/28)

Typically 156ppm is considered the middle of the safe range for cure concentration of a dry cure whole muscle.
2% is a very typical salt addition to the cure for whole muscle

156ppm = 156mg per kg
2% of 1kg = 20g per kg
20g per kg = 2000mg per kg

salt plus cure = 2156mg per kg

2156mg in a whole kg / 35.71 oz in a whole kg = 60.37 mg total sodium per oz of dry cured whole muscle meat, assuming cure is included in the sodium value at 1:1mg
That seems low to me, in comparison to practically any processed food.

From my understanding a wet cure such as pop’s brine typically has higher values in terms of ppm, but even if it were double, that would not be a terrible hit on your daily diet. Certainly nothing like a bowl of ramen (often 1800mg sodium or more!).

A regular cheeseburger from McDonalds has 720mg. some of that is in the bun and toppings, but the patty is a mere 1.6oz . I could make my own canadian bacon, have 2oz on my breakfast sandwich, and only get 120mg of sodium.

US RDA for sodium is 2300mg. American Heart Association says an optimum goal is 1500mg per day. A 2oz serving of said home cured canadian bacon would be 120mg or 10.6% of the daily value recommended by the AHA, or 5.2% of US RDA. That seems quite good if you ask me.

Or is there an error in my math?

 

[Fueling Around]

Didn't check your math.
The hidden salt are your adder. Bread and cheese top the list.
Most of my cures are under 1% total salt and NO sugar which the AHA also recommends reducing due to the inflammation. I make a lot of (I hate the term "Canadian bacon") ham from pork tenderloins. Better sized for pizza, sandwich, or charcuterie boards.
When have you limited your meat to 2 oz.?

 

[doongie]

When have you limited your meat to 2 oz.?

Ha! Fair point.

This was specifically in regard to only my breakfast sandwich, and to make the comparison to crapdonalds.

 

[PolishDeli]

Cured meats tend to have a lot of salt. But it is not inherent to the curing process.

If you're curing meats at home you can control the salt content. Take a standard sausage recipie:
1000g meat
18g salt
2g cure#1.

If you eat 1/4 pound of that sausage, you are eating about 2.3g of salt.

If you eat 1/4 pound of McDonald's meat you get about 1.5g of salt.

Now remake the sausage with only cure#1: your 1000g of meat will still be fully cured, but it'll only have about 2g of salt total. A 1/4 pound serving will have only 0.2g of salt.

of course the trade off here is flavor.
One thing worth experimenting with is Potassium Chloride salt substitute.

---
Edit:
Your math checks out, but portion size and extras matter.
For example, running some assumptions on your breakfast sandwich:

Canadian Bacon: 0.550 g
Fried Egg: 0.85 g
American Cheese: 0.280 g
English Muffin: 0.250 g
Total 1.165 g
So, you've already almost met you AHA optimum goal...at breakfast

 

[DougE]

What I end up with is 1.75% total salt in my cured bacon.

0.25% cure #1
1.5% salt
0.75% sugar

John Fueling Around goes way lower on the total salt in his cures and seems to be successful, but I don't feel comfortable in going much lower than I posted above.

Salt is the driver that causes the cure to be taken into the meat, and without enough, the process won't happen.

 

[doongie]

What I end up with is 1.75% total salt in my cured bacon.

0.25% cure #1
1.5% salt
0.75% sugar

Salt is the driver that causes the cure to be taken into the meat, and without enough, the process won't happen.

1.5% is a number I’ve seen on these forums quite a few times in the past. I’m aware of others going lower but never followed up because I didn’t find 2% to be very salty. With my new lower sodium diet I’ll likely drop that extra .5% and see what I think. I can always go back to the 2% and feel comfortable it won’t blow my diet.

 

[DougE]

1.5% is a number I’ve seen on these forums quite a few times in the past. I’m aware of others going lower but never followed up because I didn’t find 2% to be very salty. With my new lower sodium diet I’ll likely drop that extra .5% and see what I think. I can always go back to the 2% and feel comfortable it won’t blow my diet.

I'm not much of a salter unless it's on fresh tomatoes or potatoes in any form. Those have to have salt. Other than that, I don't salt anything on my plate.

I find 1.75% (0.25% cure#1 + 1.5% non-iodized salt) total salt in cured meat to be about perfect for my taste. YMMV though

 

[Fueling Around]

Cured meats tend to have a lot of salt. But it is not inherent to the curing process.

If you're curing meats at home you can control the salt content. Take a standard sausage recipie:
1000g meat
18g salt
2g cure#1.

If you eat 1/4 pound of that sausage, you are eating about 2.3g of salt.
...

I disagree somewhat. The curing process alone doesn't add much salt. The recipes for curing meat add a lot of salt and sugars.
2.3g of salt is 2300 milligrams which is the recommended daily limit.
Most people consume over 3,500 mg on a daily basis.

...
Now remake the sausage with only cure#1: your 1000g of meat will still be fully cured, but it'll only have about 2g of salt total. A 1/4 pound serving will have only 0.2g of salt.

of course the trade off here is flavor.
One thing worth experimenting with is Potassium Chloride salt substitute.
...

Sausage with cure #1 only is really bland even for my taste. I go 1/2 to 1% total salt for the flavor and again NO added sugars.
Salt substitutes may be healthier but are very bitter. There come the urge to add sugars same as sodium chloride to tame the bitterness.

 

[Fueling Around]

...
John Fueling Around goes way lower on the total salt in his cures and seems to be successful, but I don't feel comfortable in going much lower than I posted above.

Salt is the driver that causes the cure to be taken into the meat, and without enough, the process won't happen.

I wondered the lower salt until I read Rytek Kutas book and he stated that cure#1 alone has enough salt to complete the cure. As I stated in previous post, I find the roughly 0.25% salt is very bland. I add salt to make 1/2 to 1% total.

 

[Fueling Around]

1.5% is a number I’ve seen on these forums quite a few times in the past. I’m aware of others going lower but never followed up because I didn’t find 2% to be very salty. With my new lower sodium diet I’ll likely drop that extra .5% and see what I think. I can always go back to the 2% and feel comfortable it won’t blow my diet.

Sorry to preach.
If you are on a sodium restricted diet going 1.5% isn't doing you anything.
If Doc / Dietitian gave you a limit stick with it. By staying with a low sodium regiment for the past 15 years, my wife was able to get off HBP meds entirely. I went borderline a few years ago, but as long as I keep my weight in check all is good.