HEALTH BENEFITS

You must be thinking that eating any kind of cured meat has absolutely no health benefits whatsoever. True, if you gorge on a kilo of ham every day, your cholesterol might just pop through the roof, not to mention your weight. Spaniards, though, eat just a touch of ham (approximately 100 grams) almost everyday as an integral part of their Mediterranean Diet. What health benefits could jamón serrano possibly have?

Spanish ham is rich in iron, magnesium, zinc, calcium, phosphorous, vitamins B1, B2, and niacin. (See, I told you that this stuff was good for you!) 100 grams of Spanish ham provides 24% of the recommended daily intake of niacin and 33% protein. In fact, Spanish ham contains 50% more protein than fresh meat.

What about all those strips of marbled fat? Oleic acid is the primary component of fat in Spanish ham. This fat is the kind that promotes production of HDL (the good cholesterol). It’s the same acid found in olive oil – another core ingredient of the Spanish diet.