The current trend in nutrition encourages us to increase our consumption of so-called “natural” foods and to reduce, or even avoid, ultra-processed products. Within this range of foods, between the purity of the former and the unhealthy nature of the latter, lies a broad spectrum of processed foods—among them jamón —which run the risk of being demonized and categorized alongside those foods we are advised to avoid.
We all want to take care of our diet to preserve our health, something that our hectic daily lives make increasingly difficult. Consuming only fresh or minimally processed foods is not always feasible, but we should not lose sight of the goal: filling our pantry with processed products that are closer to natural foods rather than ultra-processed ones.
How Are Foods Categorized Based on Their Processing?
Nowadays, discussions about isolated nutrients have taken a back seat, and the focus has shifted to evaluating foods as a whole.
To shed more light on this topic and make the degree of food processing more understandable to consumers, the NOVA classification was developed several years ago by the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
This system categorizes foods into four groups based on their level of manipulation or processing before consumption. These are the groups:
Group 1: Unprocessed (Fresh) or Minimally Processed Foods
Unprocessed foods include edible parts of plants (vegetables, greens, and fruits), animal products (such as fresh meat, eggs, or milk), and others like water, algae, or mushrooms.
Minimally processed foods are natural products that have undergone minimal transformation to be eaten and/or preserved. These products may be cut, washed, frozen, pasteurized, peeled, grated, refrigerated, or even fermented (as long as alcohol is not produced), all while respecting the food’s natural properties.
Group 2: Processed Culinary Ingredients
This group includes foods that are extracted or refined from natural products and are not consumed alone but combined with foods from Group 1. Examples include vegetable and animal oils (such as olive oil or butter), sugars, starches, and salt.
Group 3: Processed Foods
In this group, where jamón is found, we encounter foods that result from combining products from Group 1 with those from Group 2. These are natural foods treated by adding fats, sugars, or salt to improve both their preservation (salt in the case of jamón) and palatability.
Processed products in this group retain a recognizable form of their original food, maintaining their basic identity. In addition to jamón, this group includes foods such as fruit in syrup, canned fish, smoked products, pickles, cheeses, and bread. Many of them are still produced in artisanal or traditional ways.
Group 4: Ultra-Processed Foods
The infamous ultra-processed foods are meals or beverages made from other foods, but the original product is often unrecognizable. They tend to contain numerous additives and long ingredient lists (always more than five), including many ingredients that are hard to find in a home kitchen: emulsifiers, colorants, thickeners, acidity regulators, stabilizers, sweeteners, flavor enhancers, and more. Additionally, they are often subjected to processes such as frying, fat hydrogenation, or flour refinement.
Around 80% of the products found in supermarkets fall into this category: snacks, sugary drinks, cookies, baby food, breakfast cereals, candies, dairy desserts, industrial pastries, and an endless list of products that share a series of organoleptic characteristics that stimulate our palate intensely, almost addictively.
What Benefits Does Jamón Offer Compared to Ultra-Processed Foods?
As mentioned, jamón is a processed food from Group 3. Traditionally, the pig’s hind leg has been salted to prolong its shelf life and allow it to be consumed over a long period. This preservation technique not only gives jamón its unmistakable flavor and aroma but also grants it a series of properties not found in the raw material. The processes that occur during the curing and maturation of each piece have satiating effects, aid digestion, and promote the formation of numerous peptides with beneficial properties for our health.
On the other hand, no ultra-processed food can boast of offering any extra benefit to its original ingredient (if one exists). In fact, ultra-processed foods tend to have negative long-term health consequences due to their high content of saturated fats, sugars, and very high levels of salt.
We are not encouraging excessive consumption of jamón or any other processed food. In fact, we believe that most of our diet should be based on the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, greens, meats, and fish. However, unlike products that vie for our attention with multiple messages on supermarket shelves, jamón is a naturally processed product whose moderate consumption has benefits for both our physical and emotional health.
Beyond the NOVA classification, there is a simple way to determine if a food is a good addition to your diet. Just ask yourself: Did it exist in our grandparents’ time? Do I understand the list of ingredients? Can I recognize where it comes from? Was it ever alive?
Jamón is a Group 3 processed food, naturally preserved with salt, offering flavor, digestion support, and beneficial peptides. Unlike ultra-processed foods, which are heavily modified and often harmful, jamón retains its original identity. Moderate consumption is healthy, highlighting the importance of choosing traditionally processed foods over highly industrialized products.
Thank you very much for your comment and for supporting the consumption of traditionally prepared foods.