Who doesn’t like bacon? That crispy, sweet, salty, crunchy flavor is hard to dislike or duplicate. Even my favorite meat counter guy tells me that’s the first thing vegans buy when they start eating meat. I sure can’t fault that!

But headlines and health organizations have warned us of the dangers of processed meat. The World Health Organization classifies processed meat—including bacon—as a carcinogen. Another study from the British Medical Journal found increased consumption of processed meat is associated with higher mortality rates.

Turkey Bacon

So, many people turned to turkey bacon. The lower fat content and the general ‘health’ appeal of turkey to the fat-conscious folks has made turkey bacon an alternative choice.

“The problem with traditional pork bacon is typically two-thirds of the calories come from fat,” says a registered dietitian. And, she says, “Half of that is saturated fat which has the bad reputation of being responsible for heart disease.” Of course, most of us now know that saturated fat is not so bad. But the question remains—is turkey bacon really a healthier alternative?

First of all, turkey bacon is not really bacon. Bacon is meat and fat from a specific part of a pig which has been cured. Turkey ‘bacon’ is actually just simulated bacon since it is not from a pig, and not any specific part of a turkey.

Turkey bacon flavor runs a distant second to real bacon and even then, it obviously does not come off the bird looking and tasting the way it does when you fry a slice of it in the pan. Turkey bacon is more for when you don’t care about the real taste of bacon but want something crisp and ‘ham-like’ to complement your eggs, and want to feel like you are being ‘healthier’. The point is, you aren’t really eating anything that is truly healthier.

Turkey bacon doesn’t even really taste like real bacon. It does contain less fat, but to make up for that, it contains a lot of other ingredients—some of them not so great—to make up for the flavor loss. Turkey bacon actually tastes more like ham or some kind of lunchmeat, quite frankly.

Here’s a list of ingredients from a package of typical turkey bacon:

– Turkey
– Mechanically Separated Turkey
– Water
– Salt
– Sugar
– Canola Oil
– Sunflower Oil
– Natural Flavor
– Sodium Phosphate
– Sodium Erythorbate
– Sodium Nitrite

Turkey bacon is really just processed lunchmeat. It’s turkey scraps, plus other flavorings shaped to look like bacon. A poor substitute for real bacon.

Turkey bacon also generally carries a higher amount of sodium added to it. While turkey bacon claims it contains less fat, the fat it does have is nothing to brag about. Canola oil and other highly processed vegetables are NOT healthier than real, saturated fat from a pig.

Real Bacon

How about REAL bacon from a pig? There is a wide range in both quality and health benefits or unhealthy benefits of
real bacon, depending on the source of the bacon (conventionally raised or humanely raised/organic).

Bacon is cured meat, which means it is soaked in a solution of salt, sugar and sometimes preservatives like nitrates. Then it is smoked to get its delicious flavor.

The fats in bacon contain about 50% monounsaturated fat and oleic acid, which is the same healthy fat that olive oil contains. The rest is mostly saturated fat, which once was thought to be ‘bad’ for us and for our hearts, but the latest research shows saturated fat is a necessary fat for our bodies to function well. And truthfully, once you fry bacon up in a pan, most of the fat is cooked out of the bacon and left in the pan.

Both real bacon and turkey bacon contain fairly high levels of sodium which is used to cure the meat. While some people may be sensitive to added salt in foods, it’s not bad unless you are eating large quantities of foods with added sodium which is in many packaged and processed foods.

Both real bacon and turkey bacon often contain nitrates — unless the bacon you purchase is ‘natural’ or ‘uncured’ bacon. Heat, from cooking causes these additives to form compounds called nitrosamines which can be carcinogenic. However, antioxidants like vitamin C and erythorbic acid are added to the bacon to offset the risk of the nitrosamines.

What About the Dangers of Processed Meats?

We’ve heard several times lately that red meat and processed meat can cause cancer.

As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) actually classified processed meats as a carcinogen, which puts it in the same category as asbestos, cigarettes, benzene, nuclear fallout, plutonium, and x-rays, among other things. But is this a bit of an overreaction?

So what is the actual risk of eating red meat or processed meats? For every 100 g of red meat eaten, the risk increases 17%, and for every 50 g of processed meat, the risk goes up 18% for colorectal cancers. This means that processed meat carries about twice the risk of eating red meat. However, in this report from May 2011, shows there was no significant connection found between red meat and colorectal cancer, so the jury is still out on this.

While 17% and 18% increase in risk sounds significant, you also have to look at relative risk of colon cancer overall. Your chances are about 1 in 33,000, or three extra cases of colorectal cancer per 100,000 people who may develop bowel cancer from eating cured and processed meats.

Most importantly, in these studies on processed meat dangers is that the lifestyle variables of the people in the study have not been considered. Most people who eat a diet high in processed meat have unhealthy lifestyles: not enough vegetables or fruit, lots of highly processed foods, sedentary, and possibly cigarette smokers. In this article, red meat is shown to have numerous health benefits, especially if you choose pasture raised.

The bottom line on turkey vs. real bacon is this: real bacon is not that bad, tastes better, and if you purchase real bacon made from humanely raised/organic pigs, cured naturally without nitrates or nitrites, you have made a better, more natural choice than processed turkey bacon. You can now even purchase ‘Paleo’ style bacon without added sugars as well.

On the other hand, even if you purchase so-called ‘natural’ turkey bacon, you are still getting processed meat made of odd parts of the turkey, highly processed vegetable oils, sugar and lots of sodium.

And of course, real bacon tastes so much better! So have a couple of delicious slices of bacon and enjoy—without guilt!

References
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/turkey-bacon-how-healthy-is-it-really/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-bacon-bad-or-good#section7
https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/nutrition-questions-tips?slide=142486#142486
https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/bacon-vs-turkey-bacon-which-is-healthier-for-you
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26633477
https://thenutritionwatchdog.com/bacon-cigarettes-really-the-real-story-on-red-meat-and-processed-meats/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/turkey-bacon_n_5266398

The post Turkey Bacon vs Real Bacon appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

By: Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist and Author of The Diabetes Fix and The Truth About Testosterone

I’m always amazed how many people overlook the importance of what an animal was fed and how that relates to the nutritional benefits of that food.

Eggs are a perfect example.

As you probably know, our egg supply in the US comes mostly from factory-farmed chickens that not only live in horrendously unhealthy conditions for the chicken, but also fed an unnatural diet of grains that SEVERELY affects the nutritional qualities of the eggs for your health.

I’ve been digging around on this topic for a long time, and here are some interesting things I’ve found:

In general, the regular eggs you get at the supermarket (that are fed grains and are from factory farms) contain anywhere from 30mg to 80mg omega-3 fatty acids per egg (depending on egg size, variety of hens, exact ratio of feed, etc)

However, hens allowed to roam freely outdoors on pasture, and/or fed a diverse feed of greens, mixed vegetables, bugs, grubs, worms, etc can contain anywhere from 300mg to 700mg of omega-3’s per egg.

One such study came from a Dr. Simopoulos who analyzed the omega-3 vs omega-6 content of eggs from a farm in Greece where the chickens roamed freely on pasture and ate a variety of natural foods such as greens and bugs/worms.  These eggs were compared against analysis of “supermarket eggs” fed a typical grain-based diet in the US.

The eggs from the free roaming chickens in Greece had an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 1.3 to 1 while the “supermarket eggs” had a horrendous omega-6/omega3 ratio of 19.4 to 1.

As for total omega-3 content per egg in Simopoulos’ report, the eggs from the free-roaming hens in Greece had approx 300 mg of omega-3’s per egg, while the “supermarket egg” had a lowly 30 mg of omega-3’s per egg.  That’s 10x more healthy omega-3s in the pasture-raised eggs, which you know are so incredibly important for your brain health, heart health and lots more!

So the next time you hear somebody say there’s “no difference” between standard grocery store eggs (from factory farms) and the more expensive pasture-raised eggs, show them THOSE stats!

I’ve also been reading the inside of egg cartons at grocery stores lately and comparing notes on their label claims of omega-3 fatty acids.

The egg producers recently have been catching on to the public’s knowledge of the reduced omega-3 content in mass produced eggs… so certain brands have now been “fortifying” the hens diet with feed additions higher in omega-3’s to help balance out the excess omega-6’s found in eggs from grain-fed hens.

Usually, this fortification occurs by adding either flax seed or an algae meal (or fish meal) to the hens feed. The hens eat more omega-3’s and that produces a higher omega-3 content in the eggs.

Some of these so-called “omega-3 eggs” have label claims anywhere from 100mg omega-3’s to 250mg omega-3’s…  Definitely better than the 30mg omega-3’s found in the typical “supermarket eggs”.  However, pasture-raised eggs would still be healthier overall than grain-fed hens that just contained a supplement in their feed.

I also stumbled onto a specific brand of eggs recently that touted that it’s hens are fed a patented feed mixture of 20 different vegetables, grains, and minerals. Because of the diverse diet that these hens are fed, their measured omega-3 content is listed as 660mg omega-3’s per egg, as well as a perfect 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3.

This is 22x the omega-3 content of the grain-fed “supermarket egg” that contained only 30mg omega-3’s in Dr. Simopoulos’ report.

That just shows how powerful of a difference in the nutrition composition that occurs simply by feeding the hens a proper diverse diet. And we haven’t even touched on the nutritional content of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, etc that will obviously be higher in a healthy hen fed a diverse diet as opposed to a factory farmed hen.

(Btw, this is the same thing that happens in grass-fed beef vs grain-fed beef… there are much higher omega-3 levels in grass-fed beef, and much higher levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants)

However, these feed improvements for hens are only a small step in the right direction. Keep in mind that these egg companies with label claims of increased omega-3 content still doesn’t necessarily mean that the hens were raised in an outdoor environment, and allowed to roam freely in the sunshine (which gives them more vitamin D) instead of being confined indoors in filthy conditions their entire lives, sitting in their own excrement, and barely able to move.

Also keep in mind that “cage-free” does NOT mean that the hens actually go outside… According to experts in the field, “cage free” eggs only means that there is a small door somewhere that the hens COULD go outside if they were somehow able to find the small door through a maze of thousands of other hens, and were smart enough to venture through it. This can vary vastly from company to company.

This is supposedly a loophole in the whole “cage-free” labeling system. I’m not sure if there’s any way currently to know IF the chickens actually ventured outside even when they’re labeled “cage-free”.

So what are the best options for the healthiest eggs?

1. By FAR the best option is if you can find pasture-raised eggs, such as a farm like Vital Farms.  This is one brand of eggs I find at my local health foods store, or at Whole Foods.  If the eggs are labeled “pasture-raised”, those are guaranteed to be the healthiest eggs you can buy, and the hens that are treated the best.

Also, if you can find a local farmer (or farmers market) where you KNOW that the hens are actually outdoors most of the time and allowed to eat a natural diet with high variety, that is great too. These will be the superstar eggs in terms of nutritional quality.

2. If you absolutely don’t see any pasture-raised eggs at your grocery store, and don’t know any local farmers, the next best options are organic eggs and/or “omega-3” eggs.  In these scenarios, we at least know that the hens ate an organic diet and/or had supplemental flax or other omega-3 rich ingredients added to their feed.

You can also read the labels on egg cartons and see if it sounds like the hens were fed a highly variable diet (instead of just grains).  Sometimes this can come from algae meal or flax seed, etc added to their diet.  This is at least an improvement over standard supermarket eggs.

Despite what you may hear from some so-called “health experts” who say that all eggs are equal, these types of eggs WILL have significant nutritional benefits compared to your typical supermarket eggs.

Remember that “cage-free” has almost no meaning, because in most cases, it’s just a tiny door that’s open and the majority of the hens will never find their way to that open door, so they never actually get to go outside in the fresh air and sunshine.  You want to look for pasture-raised eggs as the top priority, and if you can’t find those, opt for organic or omega-3 eggs as the next best alternatives.

Remember to think of price differently than most people… sure, I realize that pasture-raised eggs might be $5 or $6 per dozen instead of $3, but that’s still super cheap compared to most foods.  It’s still only 40-50 cents per egg (and maybe 15 cents more than a standard grain-fed egg), and eggs are one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet that you can eat for your health, so it’s worth it to spend a little more on that upgrade.

Plus, you’re investing in your health with better quality foods, which can save on health care costs later!

And lastly, if you’re still not up to date about why the saturated fat and cholesterol from egg yolks is actually GOOD for you, then make sure to read this article of mine, which as you can see, has 57,000 facebook likes/shares… Why whole eggs are a LOT healthier than egg whites.

While we’re on the topic of omega 3’s and omega 6’s, did you know that there’s another “omega fat” that most people never really hear about?  It’s true, and check this out to see why…

> Odd “omega-7 oil” helps burn up to 2lbs daily (most people haven’t heard of this)

Speaking of eggs, don’t miss these articles too:

– Try this baked avocado egg recipe for a healthy fat-burning breakfast

– Before you buy eggs, you need to know these 5 things

– Guacamole deviled eggs recipe

The post Why “cage-free” eggs are a SCAM — Plus the type of eggs that have 10x to 22x more omega-3s appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.