Americans love their sandwiches, eating more than 300 million each day, according to the Arizona Farm Bureau. If you like meat on your sandwiches, Boar's Head offers a wide variety of options, including heart-healthy choices. Knowing the nutrition facts for Boar's Head meats can help you determine which ones work best for your diet.
Turkey Totals
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Boar's Head offers more than 15 different turkey lunch meat options, including all natural, smoked, honey and maple-flavored. If you're looking for a heart-healthy turkey lunch meat, the no-salt added, oven-roasted turkey makes a good option with 70 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 15 grams of protein and 55 milligrams of sodium per 2-ounce serving. The Maple Glazed Honey Coat Cured Turkey is a little higher in sodium, but is still a heart-healthy option, with 70 calories, 0.5 grams of total fat, 14 grams of protein, 2 grams of carbs and 440 milligrams of sodium per 2-ounce serving. Getting too much sodium in your diet increases your risk of high blood pressure, and processed foods like lunch meat are a source of sodium in your diet. For better health, limit your intake to less than 2,300 milligrams a day.
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Chicken Nutrition
If you like chicken sandwiches, Boar's Head also offers a variety of choices, including low-sodium and flavored options. The Golden Classic Oven Roasted, 42-percent Lower Sodium Chicken makes a heart-healthy choice with 60 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 13 grams of protein and 350 milligrams of sodium, per 2-ounce serving. Or, try the Blazing Buffalo Style Roasted Chicken, that has 60 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 13 grams of protein and 460 milligrams of sodium in the same serving.
Beef Facts
Boar's Head beef options include roast beef, corned beef, and beef brisket, but none of them is a heart-healthy choice. The top-round roast beef has 80 calories, 2.5 grams of total fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 13 grams of protein, 2 grams of carbs and 350 milligrams of sodium per 2-ounce serving. By comparison, the low-sodium roast beef is not a heart-healthy option, as it contains 90 calories, 3 grams of total fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 15 grams of protein and 80 milligrams of sodium in a 2-ounce portion. Heart-healthy meats must contain 1 gram or less of saturated fat, and have 20 mg or less of cholesterol per serving, according to the American Heart Association. The top-round roast beef has 40 mgs of cholesterol and the low-sodium roast beef has 35 mgs of cholesterol.
Ham It Up
You'll find a few more heart-healthy ham lunch meat options from Boar's Head, including the All Natural Applewood Smoked Uncured Ham and Branded Deluxe Ham 42 Percent Lower Sodium. A 2-ounce portion of the heart-healthy Applewood smoked ham from Boar's Head contains 70 calories, 2 grams of total fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 11 grams of protein, 1 gram of carbs and 440 milligrams of sodium, while the same serving of the lower-sodium, heart-healthy ham contains 60 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 10 grams of protein, 2 grams of carbs and 480 milligrams of sodium.
Bologna, Wursts and Loaves
None of the bologna, wursts or loaves from Boar's Head makes a heart-healthy lunch meat option. A 2-ounce portion of beef bologna contains 150 calories, 13 grams of total fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 7 grams of protein and 520 milligrams of sodium. The Lite Braunschweiger Liverwurst is lower in sodium, but is still high in fat, with 120 calories, 8 grams of total fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 9 grams of protein, 1 gram of carbs and 450 milligrams of sodium per 2 ounces.