Eat Your Bacon......In Moderation

That`s what I was for a very long time when it came to the idea of eating fat. Scared and mistaken. Conventional wisdom had taught me that you get fat from eating fat. Conventional wisdom had taught me to eat lots and lots of wheat and to always choose the low-fat version of things. Low fat mayo, low fat yogurt, low fat milk, low fat this, low fat that.....I was so scared of eating fat I lost sight of all the good fats like nuts and avocadoes and oils. My skin suffered, my moods suffered, my brain suffered, and my taste buds suffered. If you haven`t already heard, when they take the fat out of things they also take out alot of the taste. Well they have to replace it with something so it is palatable, and they usually choose sugar. So while the low fat versions may be less fattening on the label, they are twice as saturated with sugar, which ends up as fat on your hips and thighs and belly. Not a fair trade in my book. Last February I started piddling around in what is called Primal and Paleo eating. I ditched anything low fat, and I started eating more fat. Healthy fat for the most part. Nuts, seeds, avocadoes, olives, real butter, full fat Greek yogurt....stuff like that. I also began eating eggs everyday, and with those eggs came bacon. I L-O-V-E bacon and I no longer feel as though it`s a sinful pleasure. Pleasure definitely, sinful, no more. Once I started to dig a little deeper into the driving forces of fat storage, which are hormones, and one very important hormone being insulin, I discovered that eating fat does not make you fat and is not directly correlated with heart disease. Let me share why.

Contrary to what alot of people have been taught, eating fat doesn`t make you fat. The metabolism of nutrients is a pretty in depth subject and has much more to do with insulin and glycogen than anything else. (I put some links on the science of nutrient and fat metabolism for those of you who want to delve deeper into the science side of things further down on the page.) Hormone balance dictates fat storage, and we have a pretty good grip on hormone balance with the foods we eat. Foods that are slow to digest and don`t initiate an insulin spike are great for keeping fat accumulation under control. Fats are one of these foods, and bacon is one of my favorites.

Most of us have heard the hoopla of saturated fat. "Saturated fat is responsible for heart disease." While fake saturated fats like those found in highly processed vegetable oils, margarine, fake butter, and things with "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogentated" on the label are bad, naturally occurring saturated fats are not bad. Naturally occurring saturated fats are found in animal proteins and tropical oils such as coconut and palm oils. The problem with man made fats is that they induce systemic inflammation within the body, and inflammation leads to clogged arteries. Hydrogentated anything, tells our body to deposit cholesterol as a healing agent on our artery walls to counter act the inflammation, which has led to an explosion of heart disease in the past 50-60 years or so since they`ve been putting these oils into our foods. It`s not saturated fat that`s the problem, it`s the source of the saturated fat. When possible, try to stick to nature made, whole foods, over man made, processed foods.

We`ve been conditioned to think that high cholesterol causes heart disease. This is not true. It does sell alot of cholesterol lowering medications though; to the tune of 29 billion dollars per year. Popping a pill is much easier than the healthiest way you could possibly control your cholesterol profile which is managing the things that raise it. Things like constant stress, refined and overly processed foods, smoking, excessive alcohol use; all of these are stressors on your body and lead to inlammation, which can in turn cause disease.

Stephen Guyenet, a biochemist, neurobiologist, and author says: “When investigators analyzed the relationship between saturated fat intake, serum cholesterol and heart attack risk, they were so disappointed that they never formally published the results. We know from multiple sources that they found no significant relationship between saturated fat intake and blood cholesterol or heart attack risk… Overall, the literature does not offer much support for the idea that long term saturated fat intake has a significant effect on the concentration of blood cholesterol. If it’s a factor at all, it must be rather weak, which is consistent with what has been observed in multiple non-human species.”

Yet another expert within the field (Chris Kesser) says that "eating naturally occurring saturated fat actually reduces the type of cholesterol that is associated with heart disease."

Not that it has alot to do with the subject of bacon, because 50% of bacon is made up of monosaturated fat, which is the exact type of oil that olive oil is made up of. We all know how the "health gurus" and the AHA (American Heart Assoc.) feel about olive oil.

Yes, there`s a difference in different brands of bacon. If you can get your hands on grass fed, pastured pork, you`re in the lead. The omega ratios are better in grass-fed animals than in corn/grain based animals. So if you`re pigging out (no pun intended lol) on the cheapest grain fed bacon that you can find, you`re not getting many of the benefits that bacon from a pastured pig gives you and you need to watch your consumption. However, if you`ve got a quality source for some good bacon, go for it and eat it in amounts within reason.

Things are always changing in nurition circles and I find that quite confusing at times. It`s hard to trust someone when their views are always changing and you don`t know what to believe. Nitrates fall into this category for me. I was told that nitrates were bad because they promoted digestive cancers because of their ability to make carcinogens in our digestive track. Because of its use as a preservative in processed meats, and the fact that there`s a link between processed meats and gastric cancer, nitrates werer viewed as accomplices. As far as solid research goes, there is no real link between nitrates and gastric cancer. What`s even more alarming, to me anyways, is that the most abundant source of nitrates is green leafy vegetables!

Do I think you should eat a package of bacon every day? Of course not. I also don`t think it deserves the bad rap it gets as being the one of the worst foods on the planet to consume. The studies simply do not point in that direction. If I am given the choice between bacon and bagels, I will choose bacon hands down every time. I think it`s healthier for me than bread and eating it once a week for the past year has not given me any ill effects thus far, including weight gain; in fact I`ve lost weight eating more fat. My rules would look something like this:

1. Consider if your food is a whole food (you can cure your own bacon)
2. Focus on the quality of food you`re buying. If you can, try your hardest to buy from local farmers who pasture their animals and raise them humanely.
3. Make choices about the food you decide to put into your body according to how they will affect your health.

I am not a nutrionist but I have done extensive reading and experimenting on myself for many years. I try and stay abreast on the subject of nutrition and fitness so I can give my body what it desires most. I encourage everyone to do the same. Your health and fitness is in no one`s hands but you`re own, and it`s each individual`s responsibility to take their well being into their own hands.

Namaste :)