As the column says
( http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1161/whats-really-in-spam )
Spam isn’t so bad. Why is the product’s reputation worse than the product? In advertisements that came out in the wake of World War II, the manufacturer pleaded with the public to understand that although innumerable soldiers knew and cursed canned spiced meatloaf under the Spam name, the soldiers were applying the brand name generically to products manufactured for the army by other suppliers. I think that the product never quite recovered from having its name misapplied to that stuff.
In the 1970’s Spam was rumoured to be made out of pigs arseholes.
It’s not so much that it’s made of bad things - it’s that the GIs had it for every freaking meal for months on end. By the time they came home, they were sick of it and made fun of it any chance they had.
I personally like the stuff and will eat Spam and Eggs quite often if the wife will let me (she hates the stuff).
Regardless of what is actually in Spam, you are a lot better off eating “real” meat like pork or beef, what with all of the salt, fat, and preservatives in it (according to this study, that is all that makes red meat unhealthy); they taste better too, not that I have eaten any Spam since I was a kid.
Well, there is Reduced Sodium Spam…
I would expect that the SPAM eaters of the South Pacific were introduced to the tinned delicacy during WWII and embraced it because it represented the wealth and abundance of the great land that sent so many marines, sailors, airmen, and soldiers so far across the sea.
Something of the sort happened in Russia, where Liberty Ships delivered tons of Lend-Lease SPAM after 1941 (there are probably still warehouses full of the stuff in Murmansk). A Russian colleague of mine once told me his dad (who was a child during the war and later served as a journalist for Pravda in the States) couldn’t get enough of it.
Bloody Vikings!
If this is in reply to my post, the sodium content should be the least of your worries; it’s the other stuff they do to the meat, like nitrites (also linked to cancer; they already reduced the use due to this, greatly reducing the incidence of gastric cancer) and curing, besides having a very high fat content.
It’s the state dish of Hawaii. Spam is one of the things I remember most fondly about living there. You could even find Spamburgers easily.