Italy's two greatest food towns are Palma and Bologna, longtime rivals for the title of the nation’s epicurean epicenter. Each has a namesake food, respectively, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Bologna, a type of salami. Bologna can only be made in this region under strict methods and from very particular ingredients, and in Italy, Bologna is rightly considered a delicacy, while in the United States it's almost a punishment whereby the American version is called boloney.
This Italian Diva can remember when in elementary school seeing other kids who brought boloney sandwiches, presumably because their parents couldn't afford roast beef, turkey, or ham. As a mom, my twins brought lunch choices like quiche, tuna or egg salad sandwiches as they watched all the other kids eat PBJ or baloney sandwiches.
As a nation, our entire perspective of baloney is skewed against the real thing because the average American delis only offer the fake. As a result, our taste buds suffer, and our health suffers. In Italy, real Bologna does not have all the preservatives and artificial chemicals because not only are illegal but also banned.
One of the most common varieties of baloney, is the Oscar Mayer brand made from mechanically separated chicken and pork. The USDA explains mechanically separated meat as a paste-like meat product produced by forcing bones with attached edible meat under high pressure through a sieve to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue.
The Italian Diva’s Health Tip: The International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed more than 800 studies to determine that consuming processed deli meats such as ham, hot dogs, and all lunch meats, increase the risk of colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancer. Their recommendation was to avoid processed meat entirely as it was shown as unsafe at every level of consumption.
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