And no…I don’t mean the stuff that ends up in your (and my) inbox…<\/p>\n
Food prices are rising, and as a result, SPAM\u00ae sales are booming<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sales of Spam \u2014 that much maligned meat \u2014 are rising as consumers are turning more to lunch meats and other lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food budgets.<\/em><\/p>\n What was once cheeky, silly and the subject of a musical (as Monty Python mocked the meat in a can), is now back on the table as people turn to the once-snubbed meat as costs rise, analysts say.<\/em><\/p>\n …Quan just bought a couple more cans of Spam on sale and some ramen, the instant noodle dish long a staple on college campuses. Her food and gas budgets are together, so she’s had to cut back on food spending while the cost of gas increases. Her favorite Spam meal? Spam and macaroni and cheese. She doesn’t skimp on nutrition<\/span>, though<\/strong>. Quan serves her husband and three children \u2014 ranging in age from 4 to 11 \u2014 organic vegetables like salads, broccoli and carrots. <\/em><\/p>\n “It balances out,” she said.<\/em><\/p>\n It balances out?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n Nearly 80% of the calories in a\u00a02 oz. serving of\u00a0SPAM\u00ae come from fat<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0One serving of “classic”\u00a0Spam also contains a whopping 767 mg of sodium – 1\/3 of the upper limit recommended by the American Heart Association<\/a>.\u00a0 Even\u00a0Spam Lite isn’t much of an improvement: 65% of the calories come from fat, and a serving still supplies 568 mg of sodium (1\/4 of the AHA upper limit).<\/p>\n Spam is a pretty poor source of protein, too.\u00a0 For approximately the same number of calories in a serving of classic Spam, you could eat 3 oz. of chicken drumsticks (roasted) –\u00a0which are mega-cheap\u00a0(my local Albertson’s has them on sale this week for 77 cents a pound).\u00a0\u00a0Yet the\u00a0drumsticks would give you 24 g protein<\/a> vs. Spam’s 7g; and would “cost” you only 9 g fat\u00a0vs. Spam’s 15 g.<\/p>\n So why would anyone bother with Spam at all?<\/p>\n It comes down to the\u00a0convenience.\u00a0 All you have to do is pop the lid, slice, heat for a few seconds, and serve – like this:<\/p>\n [youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gLRPJEoQBQQ]<\/p>\n The chicken, on the other hand, has to be thoroughly cooked…and that’s the real problem, isn’t it?\u00a0 In our overworked, fast-paced world, convenience trumps nutrition.\u00a0\u00a0What most people don’t realize, however, is that\u00a0they pay extra for that convenience…even for a “budget” food product like Spam.<\/p>\n Need\u00a0proof?\u00a0 Just run the numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the linked article, an average 12 oz. can of SPAM costs\u00a0approx. $2.62 – which works out to\u00a0$3.49 per pound.\u00a0 That’s no bargain compared to the $0.77 per pound drumsticks mentioned above.\u00a0 Even more expensive cuts, like chicken breasts, can cost less.\u00a0 To return to my local Albertson’s for a moment, Foster Farm split chicken breasts are on sale this week\u00a0for $2.49 per pound.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And for my money, I’d get\u00a091 g protein per pound of the chicken<\/a> (raw, bone and skin included) vs. only 64 g for a pound of Spam.<\/p>\n So breasts or drumsticks, the chicken is the better deal by far.\u00a0\u00a0Nor is chicken the only low cost alternative.\u00a0 I can\u00a0find a lot of\u00a0fresh\/frozen\u00a0meat\u00a0for under $3.49\/pound.\u00a0 For example, this week’s sales include London Broil ($1.99\/lb), a 3 lb. bag of “Jennie-O turkey burgers ($5.99), and boneless pork sirloin roast\/chops ($2.99\/lb.).\u00a0 There’s even stuff not on sale that’s a better value too – such as whole frozen turkeys\/turkey breasts.<\/p>\n Aren’t the savings AND the nutrition worth a little more effort?<\/p>\n And a little more effort is really all it takes, too…the trick is to do\u00a0some advance planning and cooking in bulk.\u00a0 Cooking the chicken for dinner?\u00a0 Buy and cook extra, and refrigerate\/freeze the leftovers for subsequent meals.\u00a0 Do the same with other meats: buy\u00a0larger cuts such as roasts\u00a0or “family packs” and pre-cook, so the meat is ready to use for quick meals\/snacks.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, the use of nutritious, inexpensive “extenders” – such as dried whole grains and legumes –\u00a0will stretch your food dollars even further.\u00a0 These can be also be prepared in advance and refrigerated\/frozen and\/or\u00a0used\u00a0to make crockpot soups\/stews\/chili and other recipes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Need more tips? They’re easy to find, like here<\/a>, here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Times are getting tougher, there’s no doubt about that.\u00a0 But your food dollars will go farther if they’re spent on\u00a0real food, rather than fatty, salty,\u00a0processed, convenience\u00a0food substitutes.\u00a0\u00a0 Spam is a joke…and it should stay that way.<\/p>\n [youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And no…I don’t mean the stuff that ends up in your (and my) inbox… Food prices are rising, and as a result, SPAM\u00ae sales are booming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[277,700,1862,1511],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10209,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/10209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}