You’ve been told that bacon is “unhealthy”, but is it really? Let’s inspect the nutrition of bacon, and also the topic of nitrates and nitrites, HCAs, and more. As you’ll see, in some cases (not all), pork fat can even be considered healthy!

by Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist and Author of The Diabetes Fix and The Truth About Testosterone & guest author, Nick Pineault, aka – “The Nutrition Nerd”

Most people think that their favorite “fatty” foods, like bacon, should only be an occasional treat because they’ve been told that it will it will “clog up” your arteries and kill you because of the saturated fat.

But as you know from reading this newsletter, the scientific community has pretty much fully agreed in recent years that saturated fat is actually not bad for you at all… and is really just a natural part of the human diet just like it has been since the origins of us homo sapiens.

In reality, scientists have begun to collectively agree in recent years that highly processed polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils like corn and soy are the REAL killers (along with too much sugar and starch, both of which also cause arterial stress if blood sugar levels are too high, too frequently).

However, what most people don’t realize is that pork fat (aka, lard ) is actually only 40% saturated, 48% monosaturated, and 12% polyunsaturated (varies based on what the pigs ate), while coconut oil is 92% saturated fat, and we all know that coconut oil is super healthy for DOZENS of reasons for our bodies!

This isn’t to say that bacon fat is always bad or good per se… it really all depends on what the pigs were fed and how they were raised . Confinement factory-raised pigs that never saw the light of day and ate nothing but GMO soy and corn based feed will have a more unhealthy fat profile than free-range pork that grazed outdoors, got a lot of sunshine (which increases the vitamin D content of the pork fat), and ate a wide variety of natural foods.

In fact, free-range (or pasture-raised) pork fat can even be a really good source of vitamin D if the pigs really did see a good amount of outdoors time and sunshine…and we all know how vitally important vitamin D is for our immune systems and overall hormonal balance. Unfortunately, the vast majority of pork and bacon sold these days is from confinement factory conditions where the pigs get very little sunshine, if any at all. Yes, our grandparents and great-grandparents in the early to mid 1900’s were eating pretty much 100% pasture-raised bacon back in the day, but the factory farm industry in recent decades has ruined a good portion of the quality of our foods.

So make sure to look for pasture-raised or free-range pork if you decide to eat bacon or other forms of pork. At the very least, look for organic bacon if you can’t find pasture-raised, because at least you know they didn’t eat GMO feed in that case.

But what about Nitrates and Nitrites?

Aside from the fat content of bacon, which we just discussed can actually be healthy if you choose the right form of bacon, the biggest reason people think they need to avoid bacon is that they’ve been told that Nitrites and Nitrates can be really bad for you.

But is that really the truth?

Well, it can be a complicated subject, so I’ll let my fellow colleague, “The Nutrition Nerd“, Nicky P. simplify it for you…

Are Nitrates and Nitrites Really Dangerous?

(Do we really need to fear bacon?)

First of all, nitrites and nitrates are not exactly the same, but I’ll use them interchangeably for simplicity’s sake in this article.

Well, the consumers fear it so much that companies have started selling “nitrite-free” products in grocery stores. After all, even the Mayo Clinic says that sodium nitrite could possibly increase your risks of heart disease. (1)

But is the fear of nitrites overblown?

Should You Fear Your Saliva?

Avoiding all sources of nitrites and nitrates would involve you having the driest mouth in the history of mankind. You see, as Chris Kresser puts it…(2)

“[…] nitrites are produced by your own body in greater amounts than can be obtained from food, and salivary nitrite accounts for 70-90% of our total nitrite exposure. In other words, your spit contains far more nitrites than anything you could ever eat .”

And when it comes to food, I’ve got “bad” news for you.

Veggies contain way more naturally-occurring nitrites than processed meats like bacon. In fact, one serving of arugula contains more nitrites than 467 hot dogs…(3)

(Sorry if that made you spit out your arugula, goat cheese and walnut-salad in shock.)

“Nitrite-free” Is Misleading:

If you’re paying more for “nitrite-free” meats, you’re getting mislead.

Instead of being cured with sodium nitrite, these meats are cured with celery salt. And guess what? Celery salt gets transformed into nitrites during the curing process. (4)

In plain English… the “nitrite-free” meats probably contain way more nitrites that the regular version. (Not that it matters, because like I said nitrites are not very dangerous to begin with.)

All in all, I don’t think there’s much difference to your health whether you get the bacon containing nitrites vs the celery salt bacon since they both yield nitrites to your body.

Breaking News: Nitrites And Nitrates Are NOT A Threat:

The fear of nitrites and nitrates is overblown. There are a ton of other things you should worry about more when it comes to food, like GMOs, trans fats, and high fructose corn syrup.

– On the science side, there’s a ton of research showing that nitrites and nitrates do not accumulate inside the body, and are quickly flushed in the urine: (5)

– 25% of the nitrates we consume is converted into salivary nitrite, 20% converted into nitrite, and the rest is excreted in the urine within 5 hours of ingestion. (6)

– Any nitrate that is absorbed has a very short half-life, disappearing from our blood in under five minutes. (7)

– Some of the nitrites in our stomach reacts with gastric contents, forming nitric oxide which may have many beneficial effects. (8)

What About Nitrosamines?

The fear of nitrites and nitrates comes from the fact that some of them can transform into nitrosamines while cooking. Nitrosamines are potentially carcinogenic, so that’s definitely a legit concern. But that’s exactly why manufacturers use vitamin C (ascorbic acid) when curing their meats.

It turns out that vitamin C or even vitamin E (9) offers a protective antioxidant effect on the meat, and prevents the formation of nitrosamines.

On top of that, my recommendation of sticking to pasture-raised pork as much as possible still stands, for many reasons… One of them being the fact that grain-fed, commercially-raised pork has been shown to create way more nitrosamines when cooked than its pasture-raised cousin. (10)

The reason is simple in my mind: lard from pasture-raised animals that eat a highly variable diet outdoors contains a healthier fat profile than the fat from grain-fed confinement animals.

Conclusion

Here’s the simple conclusion… There are a ton of things you should worry about when it comes to food, but nitrates/nitrites are simply NOT one of them.

That being said, try to eat traditionally cured, pastured-raised meats from local farms as much as possible. They are much healthier, and a LOT safer.

Enjoy your bacon,
Nick
___________

Mike’s additional comments:

Before I introduced Nick’s article on whether nitrites and nitrates are worth worrying about in bacon, I discussed the fat profiles of healthier pasture-raised or free-range pork vs factory raised, and also that the vitamin D content of pasture-raised pork be as much as 5-10x higher than factory raised pork that never gets any sunshine.

I also discussed that saturated fat has been proven in recent years to not really be bad for us at all, and in fact, most forms of saturated fat are either neutral for our health, or even beneficial to our health. And besides that, bacon fat is mostly monounsaturated fat (48%), which is the same heart-healthy fat that’s raved about in olive oil, avocados, etc.

But what about Carcinogens in browned meat like bacon?

You’ve probably seen me discuss the fact that when you fry or bake any starchy foods such as grains (bread, cereal, etc), or potatoes in the form of french fries, that a carcinogen called acrylamides forms. This is a legitimate concern regarding cancer and one of the many reasons I choose to avoid breads, fries, cereals, and other browned starchy foods (aside from cheat meals) …

But there’s also a carcinogen called heterocyclic amines (HCA’s) that forms on the outer surface of meats when you brown or char meats. I’ve talked about how to counteract these carcinogenic HCAs in meat in this article .

Since bacon is a meat that’s fried in a pan at high heat, there will be small amounts of carcinogenic HCA’s, but as I’ve mentioned before, if you’re also having some high antioxidant tea or coffee with your meal, along with some veggies and/or avocado, you’ll have plenty of antioxidants to counteract the HCA’s in your body. I don’t know about you, but I almost always eat my bacon with eggs, veggies, avocado, and some form tea or coffee (all of which are great sources of antioxidants), so HCA’s just simply aren’t much of a concern if you’re counteracting them with a few sources of powerful antioxidants.

One last thing about pork fat that helps fight against any carcinogens in bacon…

According to Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, “Pork fat also contains a novel form of phosphatidylcholine that possesses antioxidant activity superior to Vitamin E. This may be one reason why lard and bacon fat are relatively stable and not prone to rancidity from free radicals.” This is yet another reason why our grandparents were actually smarter than we give them credit for… they used bacon fat or butter to cook with most times, instead of today’s inflammatory vegetable oils.

Fun Fact about Pig Diets: Did you know that some of the most expensive pork in the world comes from a region of Spain where the pigs FEAST on almost nothing but acorns. These pigs produce meat that is MUCH healthier than the corn/soy fed pigs from typical factory farms. Not only that, but apparently the absolute BEST whole-hog barbeque in the southern US traditionally came from pigs that fed on acorns as well, and this type of pork has a signficantly superior taste compared to factory farm pork, which is sadly 90% of today’s pork. It’s too bad that corporate profits are the top priority of the pork industry these days, and not the health of the pigs or the nutrition of the meat.

Did you know along with consuming meat that is pastured raised and organic, you can lower your risk of a heart attack by avoiding grains, starch, sugars and vegtable oils. Our friends over at Physio Tru, backed by the research of renonwned heart specialist Dr. Sam Walter, have come up with this simple test.

If you want to avoid a devastating heart attack, also don’t miss this simple test…

Heart Attack Test: Touch Your Feet Like THIS (for 7 seconds)

Can you really predict a heart attack?

According to America’s #1 heart nutrition expert, Dr. Sam Walters… this 7-second “feet test” can reveal if your heart is dying.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Just sit on a chair.

2. Touch your right foot.

If THIS happens… then your heart is desperately starving for oxygen (but most people only realize when it’s too late).

>> 7-second “feet test” can predict a heart attack (this could SAVE your life).

The post The TRUTH about Bacon appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

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

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