Sport Question about Beef Jerky & Sodium

[jacketfan89]

Okay, so I was at the gas station picking up a few bottled waters the other day and was looking for something healthy to munch on...(Yeah right, at the gas station.) Well people probably thought I was wierd picking up products and looking at the nutrition facts, but whatever. Anyways I came across a small package of beef jerky and it seeme really healthy (besides the sodium).

My question is whether or not beef jerky is really as healthy as it seems

120 cal
1.5 g fat
0 g saturated fat
0 g trans fat
27 g protein
? g carbs (cant remember)
and ALOT of sodium. Does sodium do anything to you besides dehydrate you and is beef jerky okay for a daily snack.

I just feel like I can buy a pack of that and munch on it from lunch (12:00) until dinner (7:00) and not be starving for dinner.

 

[calcium]

It's usually got msg and nitrites, so not healthy.

 

[Tanizaki]

Pet peeve: It's salt, not sodium. Sodium is a deadly poison and if we were eating it, we would all be dead by now.

That having been said, the science shows that salt restrictions, at best, only have effect on people who are already hypertensive. Studies reported in the Journal of the AMA suggest that the effect on blood pressure is minimal. If you are not hypertensive, there is little reason for you to avoid eating salt.

Salt is not poison, and is a vital electrolyte for your body. Bad things can happen if you do not consume enough salt. You may wish to Google "electrolte disturbance". Jerky is a way of preserving meat, usually by salting it. It's high protein and low fat.

You have also been advised to avoid MSG. This advice has no basis in fact. It occurs naturally in your body, and I do not advise that you avoid your body. It also occurs in many vegetables. A high-MSG source is konbu seaweed, which we use a base for many soups and sauces in Japan. The fact is that it is almost all food, and no one is dropping dead or even getting sick. Scientific consensus is that it is perfectly safe, although many people still have the idea that it is something to be avoided.

Regarding nitrites, the only one used in food is sodium nitrite, as a preservative used to cure meat. It is particularly helpful in preventing botulism.

All that having been said, there is no requirement that jerky must contain MSG or sodium nitrite, but it usually does. If you want complete control over your jerky, you can make your own at home, which would be much cheaper than the purchased stuff. Alton Brown has some good recipes for it at foodtv.com.

 

[jacketfan89]

Pet peeve: It's salt, not sodium. Sodium is a deadly poison and if we were eating it, we would all be dead by now.

LoL Sorry thats just what the label says .

Anyways thanks for the info. I'm going to try the homemade stuff.

 

[philsaigon]

You have also been advised to avoid MSG. This advice has no basis in fact. It occurs naturally in your body, and I do not advise that you avoid your body. It also occurs in many vegetables. A high-MSG source is konbu seaweed, which we use a base for many soups and sauces in Japan. The fact is that it is almost all food, and no one is dropping dead or even getting sick. Scientific consensus is that it is perfectly safe, although many people still have the idea that it is something to be avoided.

They use it like crazy over here. If you don't tell them not to, they sprinkle the stuff directly onto otherwise perfectly delicious noodle soup. It leaves this indescribably terrible taste on your tongue for hours and makes you really thirsty. :drooling1: I've heard the idea is that it opens up the taste buds on your tongue so that you temporarily have increased taste sensation. Just hearsay though.

Anyway, I avoid the stuff.

 

[Tanizaki]

They use it like crazy over here. If you don't tell them not to, they sprinkle the stuff directly onto otherwise perfectly delicious noodle soup. It leaves this indescribably terrible taste on your tongue for hours and makes you really thirsty. :drooling1: I've heard the idea is that it opens up the taste buds on your tongue so that you temporarily have increased taste sensation. Just hearsay though.

Anyway, I avoid the stuff.

We eat Japanese food at home mostly, so it's in most of what we eat. We don't notice extreme thirst or burning tongues. Most of the salt content in the food comes from the soy sauce already. It doesn't "open up taste buds", but stimulates certain receptors in them. Salt works in a similar fashion.

 

[philsaigon]

We eat Japanese food at home mostly, so it's in most of what we eat. We don't notice extreme thirst or burning tongues. Most of the salt content in the food comes from the soy sauce already. It doesn't "open up taste buds", but stimulates certain receptors in them. Salt works in a similar fashion.

Well, I had never really noticed it before, but I think in the case I mentioned it's because they put so much of it directly on top of the soup.

Here's an interesting article about MSG: