Ah, August in southern Indiana. Known for temperatures that soar past ninety, coupled with humidity typical of an industrial laundry. It’s enough to make even a girl who loves to cook flee her stove. In weather like this, cold cuts gain new appeal.

Old cookbooks use the term “cold cuts” when referring to leftover turkey, ham, or roast beef, sliced and served cold. No doubt this was the origin of the idea. Then came the corner delicatessen, where someone else did the roasting, and they were equipped to slice the meat more uniformly than the home cook. Now we have hermetically sealed packages of pre-sliced cold cuts, all slices uncannily alike, hanging from hooks in the grocery store cooler.

Are Cold Cuts Safe for a Low-Carb Diet?

I prefer Low-Carb & Keto cold cuts cut from a chunk of meat in identifiable form: Slices of real turkey breast, or genuine ham, or true roast beef, rather than stuff that’s been ground up and pressed together in blocks. The “pre-formed” stuff allows for too many questionable additives. In particular, it’s common for processors to sneak in sugar or corn syrup.

Cold cuts have added sodium. This doesn’t concern me; there’s little reason to believe sodium restriction is valuable for more than a small fraction of the population (more on this in a future column.) However, many also contain nitrates, which can form carcinogenic nitrosamines in your gut. Since vitamin C can prevent nitrosamine formation, it’s good to eat some vitamin C-rich food with your cold cuts – have a tomato or some strawberries, why don’t you?

Low Carb Lunch Option

Still, cold cuts provide convenient protein that doesn’t heat up the house. Let’s see how nutritious some popular cold cuts are, keeping in mind that these numbers may vary a bit from brand to brand.

Low-Carb Cold Cuts Options

Boiled ham – One ounce of boiled ham has 31 calories and 0.35 grams of carbs. You’ll get 5 grams of protein. You’ll also get some B vitamins, especially thiamin, and a little zinc.
Chopped ham, pressed into a loaf – One ounce has 50 calories and 1.02 grams of carbs. See what I mean about additives in the ground-up stuff?
Turkey breast – One ounce comes in at 24 teeny calories but has 1.24 grams of carbs, 4.2 grams protein, and few vitamins. Smoked turkey is nutritionally similar, though it has only 0.46 grams of carbs.
Roast beef – 50 calories per ounce, with 2 grams of carbs and 8 grams of protein. You’ll get 7% each of your niacin, B12, zinc, and – believe it or not – vitamin C. Also 11% of your B12.
Bologna – This kid’s favorite has 90 calories per ounce, with 1 gram of carbs. It’s a protein lightweight, with only 3 grams. Just a smattering of B vitamins and zinc.
Olive loaf – Bologna with olives in it. You’ll get 74 calories per ounce and 1.93 grams of carbohydrate. Similar vitamin content to bologna, with the addition of those healthful olive fats. Even less protein than bologna, however – just 2.77 grams. Guess some of it’s displaced by the olives.
Salami – One ounce of salami has 74 calories, with one gram of carbohydrate and 4 grams of protein.

Cold Cuts options at Amazon.com.

Cold Cuts on a Low-Carb Diet

How are you going to eat those cold cuts? You can make UnSandwiches if you like – just spread mayo and mustard between a slice of ham and a slice of cheese, say, and stuff ’em in your face. Low carb wraps are good; many of my local grocery stores carry low carb tortillas, and some also carry Flat Out flatbread, which has some low carb varieties. Lettuce wraps are great, too, especially with turkey, tomato, and bacon – again, spread some mayo on a lettuce leaf, wrap it around a slice of turkey, a slice of cooked bacon, and a wedge of tomato, and eat.

And don’t forget salads. With bagged greens and bottled dressing, cold cuts can be turned into an array of main dish salads that are as easy as they are cool and tempting. That lettuce, turkey, bacon and tomato would make a great Turkey Club Salad, for instance, and all of the cold cuts of a traditional Italian hero sandwich, plus tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and Italian vinaigrette makes a super salad.

Here’s a salad that turns deli roast beef into a company dinner:

Easy and Elegant Roast Beef and Asparagus Salad by Dana Carpender

ENCORE: Refusing Holiday Food and Staying Low-Carb – CarbSmart Podcast Episode 23

CarbSmart Podcast Episode 23: Refusing Holiday Food and Staying Low-Carb can be tough at first but you can do it to avoid the Food Pushers. The holidays are straight ahead, and with them piles and piles of carby junk, and worse, people nagging you to eat the stuff. Why so many people think that saying things like "But you have to eat it! It's traditional!" and "I worked all afternoon making it just for you" constitutes an expression of holiday goodwill, I have no idea, but sadly this behavior is all too common. You need to think ahead about how to respond to this sort of thing.