What Happens To Your Body When You Eat Deli Meat Every Day

As far as lunchtime staples go, it's hard to get more iconic than deli meat. Cured meats have been a mainstay around the world for hundreds of years (via Vice), and despite the increasing popularity of meat-free diets, the deli meat market shows no signs of getting small any time soon. In October 2021, U.S. citizens spent an enormous $418 million on deli meats, according to Statista, and with dozens of brands on sale in any given store, from salami to bologna, pastrami to turkey, there's a little something for everyone out there (per Eat This, Not That!).

But let's be real: Deli meats aren't exactly synonymous with health. Although certain types of deli meat prioritize delivering lean protein to their customers' diets, such as Applegate Naturals Oven Roasted Turkey Breast (with 11 g of protein per serving and relatively low sodium content), others aren't so great. Deli meat is notorious for its high levels of sodium, fats, and potential additives, and eating it every day may be doing more to your body than you think. So let's do a bit of unwrapping on these products, and see what happens when you eat them every day.

Eating with our futures in mind is always important to do. And if you're eating deli meat every day, it's useful to know that you may be inadvertently putting your body at greater risk of developing certain conditions later down the line. Processed meat has been directly linked to an increased risk of developing bowel cancer, with eating higher amounts of red meat in general also potentially increasing your cancer risk, according to Cancer Research UK. The chance of developing stomach and pancreatic cancer may also be made higher by eating processed meat regularly, although more study needs to be conducted.

The higher risk is down to several ingredients added to deli meats during the processing stage, and some that are already present in the meats themselves, Cancer Research UK says. The existence of haem, a red-colored pigment that occurs in red meats, can prompt chemical reactions throughout the body that make cancer more likely. Also of concern are the nitrates and nitrites added to many types of processed meat. These substances can convert in your body to compounds known as nitrosamines, which have been observed to cause cancer in animal studies, as Live Science discusses. As raising your processed meat intake by just 25 g daily can heighten your cancer risk, it's advisable to try and reduce and moderate how much you chow down on things like pastrami and sausage.

Keeping an eye on your blood pressure can't be overstated. Hypertension can increase the risk of deadly conditions like stroke and heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And with almost half of all U.S. adults having elevated blood pressure, it's a common issue that is only ever beneficial to address. That's why interrogating the contents of your diet to see if you're eating anything that may be raising your blood pressure is so important — and why eating processed deli meat every day may be seriously risky.

Eating processed red meat regularly has been linked to a higher risk of high blood pressure, according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Notably, a correlation wasn't found between hypertension and eating red meat that wasn't processed. One of the main reasons why processed red meat (and processed meat in general) is so bad for blood pressure is because of the often-enormous amounts of sodium added to them to help preserve and flavor the food, according to Verywell Health. You can also often unintentionally boost your sodium intake even further by pairing your deli meats with bread (which contains a perhaps surprising amount of salt) or other salty additions, which may impact your blood pressure even further.

Deli meats may be delicious, but they can also be a little risky sometimes, as they can carry an increased potential for foodborne illness. "Deli meats might contain Listeria bacteria due to cross-contamination, which can affect pregnant women, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems. Outbreaks of Listeria have been linked to deli meats, hot dogs, and soft cheeses," states registered dietitian and Stirlist owner Amber Pankonin to Eat This, Not That!. The accompanying illness that comes with Listeria, known as listeriosis, can appear anywhere between several days to a month after someone eats infected food, and may result in muscle aches, nausea, and diarrhea, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Listeriosis can generally be treated fairly quickly with antibiotics, and for many people, eating Listeria-infected food doesn't result in any significant illness. But if you're pregnant or immunocompromised, it's far riskier, says Pankonin (via Eat This, Not That!). People in these more vulnerable groups should ideally avoid deli meat "unless heated to a temperature of 165 F before eating," Pankonin advises.

For many people, there are few things more delicious on this earth than a sub sandwich stacked high with deli meats. But all of those slices may be causing you to ingest more calories and fat than you think, and it may well come down to the type of meat you're going for. "Certain types of deli meat are higher in fat and calories than others," explains registered dietitian Amber Pankonin to Eat This, Not That!. She adds, "Salami and bologna are often the highest in fat. In fact, certain brands of bologna might be as high as 90 calories and 7 grams of fat per slice." When you consider that you might be placing several slices in a sandwich, in addition to other ingredients, that can quickly add up.

It's important, therefore, to make sure you're checking the label of any deli meat you're buying if you're trying to monitor your calorie or fat intake. It's also useful to remember that not all deli meats are created equal: Certain lunch meats, like chicken or turkey breast, may be significantly leaner and lower in fat than their red meat counterparts, as Livestrong shows.

Diabetes development as a result of diet is most frequently associated with the amount of sugar we eat. But the deli meat we eat (yep, we're poets, people!) may also affect our diabetes risk, according to a review published in Circulation. The review included twenty different studies with a range of over a million people assessed, looking for correlations between meat consumption and diabetes mellitus. It was found that the regular consumption of processed meats put people at a 19% higher risk of developing diabetes in their lifetimes.

The study also looked at unprocessed red meats and found that there was no significant increased risk of developing diabetes when eating these. What was particularly notable in the review was that the chance of developing diabetes was higher even when eating as little as 50 grams per day of processed meat. The study authors recommended reducing processed meat intake significantly to try and avoid any potential health impacts like diabetes and heart disease. "Based on our findings, eating one serving per week or less would be associated with relatively small risk," states the lead study author Renata Micha via the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Okay, so we don't expect the food we eat to make us dehydrated. Most of the time, we place the blame for that one on not drinking enough water. And while it's certainly true that an absence of H20 will leave us parched, eating deli meats every day may actually do the same thing. The first reason for this is because of all that protein. Eating high amounts of protein causes your body to make additional uric acid, which is used to break the protein down and move it through the body (per The Healthy). This then causes the kidneys to need more water to help flush everything through — so they draw the required water from around our body, potentially leaving us dehydrated.

But it's not just the protein that can dehydrate us. Cured meats are often salt-heavy, and may contain additional ingredients like sugar to help flavor them and extend their shelf life. Both salt and sugar can cause dehydration when eaten in excessive amounts, as Eat This, Not That! indicates. To avoid this, make sure your lunch meat is additive-free as much as possible.