From my logic, lean ham and cold cut chicken breast (eaten on bread) should be closer to meat rather than highly processed sausages. This is why I think they could be consumed with the same frequency as meat and shouldn’t be generally avoided like sausages. Is that right?
Ham is highly processed meat. Not sure what the “cold cut chicken breast” is, if you are talking something like deli counter boar’s head golden classic oven roasted chicken breast then I would consider that highly processed as well. Pretty much all of those have very high sodium levels. If you want chicken breast get a whole rotisserie chicken from Costco or Whole Foods.
The advice is almost universally that processed meats are bad. So ham, sausages, bacon.
If you cook your own chicken breast that should be fine. If the chicken has been unmodified it’s fine.
Ham is never fine.
Ham, bacon, salami, smoked meats, etc. are all high fat, high salt, nitrite-containing ways to get your protein. Poultry usually won’t have nitrites as it makes the meat look raw.
The ‘uncured’ ham and bacon you see often has celery powder in it, which is extremely high in nitrates so not really that much better for you in the context of processed meats.
The nitrites in combo with protein of the meat are the major concern due to the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines, but the rest of it also makes them not great ways to get protein in. Lean ham or commercial chicken are fine once or twice a week, but not as a daily thing.
Egg is a brilliant protein source, cottage cheese, tofu scramble, chicken or fish cooked without a heap of oil or salt, etc. are all options.
Basically any cold cut, deli meat or processed meats (i.e. sausage/ hot dog) will have some mix of chemical preservative crap like nitrates to give them color. Usually processed chicken wouldn’t be any better. You could always smoke your chicken breast yourself and have it cold.