These are important questions that can make a difference in your health and sense of ethics. Thing is, I work on a "good, better, best" process or "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

What that means is that, absolutely, fresh meat is healthier than processed lunch meats. Grass-fed beef and pastured pigs and chickens are better than grain-fed and confinement operations. You avoid added chemicals and get more nutrients. And the animals have more natural lives.

However, unless you have an autoimmune condition or allergies, almost any meat, processed or not, will get you to the goals I'm discussing here.

If you have access and finances to afford the best, buy the best. If you don't, you don't need to. One of the things I've seen happen is someone looking at "The Perfect Diet" and thinking it's too complicated or too expensive so not even trying.

Keep it cheap and common--eggs, tuna, sardines! I did this for a long time. Now, I can afford grass-fed steaks, but that's not how I lost the weight.