By Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, PhD, RD
Excerpts:
When people today think of bacon, they think of clogged arteries, love handles and sin. They also think of Homer Simpson…
That’s right: eating bacon means that you’re destined for heart disease, a fat belly and a lifetime in Satan’s dungeon-Doh!
But, thinking this way is a terrible misconception. In truth, bacon is a very good addition to your diet and should be something enjoyed more often than you endulge in pancakes and syrup or crepes with brown sugar.
Pancakes and syrup may look good to some people, but it is not good for you at all…
Bacon is not an unhealthy food when choosen correctly. By reading this article your’re going to learn why and how to properly add bacon to your diet, and you’re going to start doing it now.
What Is Bacon?
Bacon is a cured meat (a natural way to prevent the meat from spoiling by way of salt, and often nitrites) that traditionally comes from a pig. It consists of both the meat of the pig, plus the fat (known as lard).
Bacon usually comes from either the belly of the pig, the back or the sides. The amount of fat (lard) in bacon depends on how fat the pig is, with the belly usually being fattier than the back, especially in America.
Today, you can also find bacon made from turkey, but if you actually spent time reading the label of turkey bacon, you’d see it contains a laundry list of ingredients, many of which are not good for you such as hydrolyzed corn gluten, soy protein, wheat gluten, disodium inosintae, silicon dioxide and nitrites.
Europeans Have It Right
All over Germany, pork reigns supreme. From bacon to sausage to lard, no parts of the pig are left unused. And, if you take a good look at traditional Germans, you will notice that they are not as overweight as Americans, nor suffer the same incidences of chronic disease.
A traditional German plate
Unlike modern-day Americans, Europeans use lard for most of their baking and cooking. Previously in the US, we also use to incorporate a lot of lard into our daily diets, but with the notion (from our government) that pig fat is too “saturated” and unhealthy, we shifted to the use of hydrogenated plant oils (aka., vegetable shortening ) which actually made us sicker, fatter and more diseased.
Why Bacon is Better
To understand why bacon, and the fat it’s rich in (lard) is a healthy choice for us to use in our diets along with other beneficials fats and proteins, let’s look at the nutritional science of this food.
If we take 1 tablespoon of pure lard, we see that is consists of an even balance of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, with some polyunsaturates and cholesterol (all animal fats contain cholesterol), but no trans fats. Specifically, it contains*:
• 5.9 grams of saturated fatty acids
• 6.4 grams monounsaturated fatty acids
• 2 grams polyunsaturated fatty acids (mostly omega-6)
• 14 mg cholesterol
*anaylsis from Mass Spectrometry at Univeristy of Alberta, 2003
If you compare lard to vegetable shortening, you get**:
• 3.8 grams saturated fatty acids
• 6.7 grams monounsaturated fatty acids
• 3.9 grams polyunsaturated fatty acids (mostly omega-6)
• 2 grams trans fatty acids (man-made)
• 0 mg cholesterol
**anaylsis from ESHA Food Processor
What’s most frightening, is the trans fats found in this man-made, fake lard substitute – trans fats have now been linked directly to heart disease morbidity and mortality, and there is a strong move to rid our shelves of this dangerous fat as soon as possible.
Saturated Fat is Not Bad
Some people still think saturated fats are evil, and as a result have banned bacon from their homes. However, fatty acid experts today emphasize that saturated fat from natural sources like meats, dairy, and tropical oils (coconut, palm) are not detrimental for our health, but instead much better than the polyunsaturated and hydrogenated substitutes we’ve been recently using.
Sure, maybe it’s confusing to try and tell yourself that saturated fat isn’t bad like we once thought. However, it’s important that you realize that we were fed lies and deception that only made us fatter, sicker and more unhealthy. We need to change this way of thinking.
The bottom line is that saturated fats, like that found in bacon CAN and SHOULD fit into a healthy diet –a diet low in sugar, processed carbohydrates, and synthetic chemicals, but high in fresh low-pesticide vegetables, organic meats and fish, and nuts and seeds.
Essential Omega-6 and Omega-3 Balance
Read the Full Article Here: http://feelyourbest.getprograde.com/the-truth-about-bacon.html
References:
Cholesterolaemic influence of palmitic acid in the sn-1, 3 v. the sn-2 position with high or low dietary linoleic acid in healthy young men.
Forsythe CE, French MA, Goh YK, Clandinin MT.
Br J Nutr. 2007 Aug;98(2):337-44. Epub 2007 Mar 29.
© Copyright 2010 GetPrograde.com
See Also: Is It Safe to Eat Bacon?
Know Your Fats:
The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol
By Mary G. Enig, Ph.D
Retail: $35.00
Now: $28.95
More Info