5 REASONS TO EAT BACON – THE FACTS ON FAT
Bacon, the word just rolls off the tongue nicely right? It sounds good and conjures happy images of a delicious breakfast served with scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes. The word bacon even smells good.
Well, how come bacon became a dirty word associated with heart disease and other illnesses? It is a myth that quality bacon and saturated fat is bad for you. Quality bacon is an athletes friend and you are about to find out why.
Saturated Fat Is Good for Your Mind and Body
There is no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease, with more and more studies confirming this.
Raw fats from a healthy natural diet are GOOD! Your body NEEDS these in order to thrive. They actually help reduce heart disease.
Artificial and chemically produced fats from processed food are BAD and to be avoided at all times. Think vegetable oil.
Great sources of healthy fats include nuts, wild fish, wild and grass-fed meats, seeds (such as chia and flaxseeds), avocados, organic free-range eggs, quality bacon, olive oil and coconut oil.
A fabulous Low Carb High Fat proponent is Jimmy Moore, I recommend you check out his facebook page here.
Saturated Fats are Best for Athletes
If you want to achieve optimal endurance (like former world champion triathlete Mark Allen for example) then you need to burn more fat. The athletes that are able to burn more fat (compared to sugar in the form of glucose) for energy are healthier, more fit, recover better, and have less illness and injury.
Some Cool Recipes with Bacon
1. Just bacon.
If you want you can make a bacon sandwich where your slice of bacon is served between 2 other slices of bacon. Haha. Seriously though, we sometimes just have bacon only. Of course it would be more balanced and nutritious to include 2 fried eggs (cooked in the bacon fat) and some tomatoes.
2. Primed Filipino Fried Rice
See recipe for Filipino Fried Rice here.
The absolute beauty of this dish is that you can then add it to your steamed white, brown, red or black rice to add much needed vitamins and minerals. Even just a spoonful helps increase the nutrient value of your plain rice considerably. Eventually you will not want the other rice any more due to the great taste and healthy benefits of the Primed Filipino Fried Rice.
3. Cauliflower Rice with Bacon and Malunggay
I know that cauliflower rice is expensive at the moment so you could just use one and grated cabbage rice and squash rice to make this dish more affordable. Once you have baked the “rice” in the oven with your bacon fat and salt you can then toss in your fresh malunggay or spinach and chopped bacon. Mmmm, delicious.
Serve with Malunggay Tea to properly fuel your mind and body for the day ahead.
4. Bacon in Salads
Another way to ensure you do not over-indulge of the great fats and protein that bacon has to offer is to include it in your healthy salad. I always drizzle my salad with Extra Virgin Olive Oil to ensure I am getting plenty of the great saturated fats my body and brain (your brain is 60% fat) needs. See our Primed Salted Duck Egg Saladrecipe where added bacon would be divine.
Here I am enjoying my Primed Salted Duck Egg Salad after Malaysia Ironman in Langkawi. It would have been tastier with bacon. I did the whole Ironman in 14 hours based on 9 hours training per week and a Low Carb High Fat diet.
What Bacon to Buy?
There is a saying that “Bad bacon is something of an oxymoron.”
However, like all processed products you should be conscious of where your bacon came from and the additives included. Always read your labels and try to avoid bacon with added sugar, msg and words you do not know.
Try and source a good local butcher who can supply you with good quality bacon.
Images from here and here respectively.
Some great information on bacon from Ben Greenfield.