Is bacon unhealthy?

Question

Is bacon unhealthy?

Abby Langer, RD · Answer

So the question is is bacon, unhealthy, you know, I think any food is unhealthy. If we eat too much of it, even carrots, as far as bacon bacon is higher in, saturated fat, then lean proteins, lean animal proteins. However, it can fit into a healthy diet. Absolutely. I would say it's not healthy or unhealthy. It's just a food that maybe want to eat less often than a leaner version of protein. In short. I mean, any food is unhealthy if you eat too much of it, bacon included. So, just limit it and couple times a week and you should be fine. It also depends on the rest of your diet. Are you eating a ton of saturated fat? A ton of animal protein? If so, you want to cut down on all of those things, one food is not going to make us healthy or unhealthy. One food is not healthy or unhealthy. It is your diet as a whole.

Jonathan Carp, MD · Answer

Certainly, if you're going to eat bacon, you're going to want it to be uncured because cured bacon is essentially a processed meat. It falls into the category of processed meat which is probably one of the unhealthiest foods that you can eat. But an overarching question, I believe, that is worthy of discussion is are ruminant animals like lamb and cow-- are they healthier because of the fermentation of the grasses and such that they eat? And I think the general consensus is yes, this fermentation probably liberates nutrients that probably make their way into the meat. There's a better ratio of fatty acids in the meat. And so if you had to pick, you can buy lamb bacon. You can buy beef bacon. I've had both. I'm Jewish, so I've actually never had bacon, and so I don't know if it tastes exactly the same, but I've had, from very high-quality farms, I've had lamb bacon and I've had cow bacon, and they were quite tasty. So those are options if you're looking for trying to improve the overall quality of the meats that you're going to eat. Poultry and pork probably are not the best choices when it comes to eating animals but, again, obviously with everything else, you need to find that healthy moderation or healthy amount of meats and such that you incorporate into your diet.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD · Answer

Oh boy guys, you went there. Here's the question is bacon, unhealthy. So I actually just wrote an article for the Today Show on a new study looking at ultra-processed foods, which we can consider bacon to be and the impact on colorectal cancer. Heart disease, overall mortality risk and mental health outcomes. Having said that we do know we have strong data, looking at the fact that having at least two and a half servings The bacon every single week could lead to some of these adverse Health outcomes and that's why bacon has been looked at as more of a Class 1 carcinogenic, which is similar to how we classify cigarettes by the World Health Organization. Given all of this. I'm also realistic. And one of the things I talked about is being a real dietitian for real people and my patients are real people and they love bacon, a lot of them do. So when we look at the studies, let's keep in mind that it's not. Not having bacon on a Sunday where you have a few strips on a sandwich that is going to lead to cancer. And it's not when we just have it on a burger. Even on a Friday night, it's when we make it part of our diet and there are other factors going on as well. So we have bacon. But we're also eating lots of sugary foods, and refined carbohydrates and were also eating different types of red meats whether their process or not in regular basis. So we have to look at our diet as a regular dietary pattern. We have to look at our bacon consumption more of a desserts. So most people wouldn't say, hey, it's a chocolate chip cookie. I buy from the store on healthy, we just kind of know that it's not the best option and Bacon's, really, the same thing. Let's look at bacon as dessert. Doesn't mean we can never, have bacon. Does it mean we can never enjoy it, but it just means that we don't want to follow what the studies show, which means we don't want to have as much bacon as what we see in some of the studies, so if you can give it up, completely, that's great too. If you Don't feel you're there. I would say having it at least twice a month and no more than that would be your sweet spot.

Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS · Answer

Here's a question. I absolutely love answering is bacon unhealthy. And my answer is no, it's not. In fact, making can be a health food but there was a button. You knew there'd be about right? The quality of the bacon, makes all the difference in the world. So we're talking about a pasture raised, poor raised humanely so they can run around and metabolize stuff away. They're supposed to not fed antibiotics, or steroids, or or hormones are all the rest of the stuff. So this kind of Bacon without being saturated with sugar and saturated with hormones and nitrates and all that stuff is absolutely a health food. Look at it, I've just brought some right out of my refrigerator and I'm just going to read you. This one, there's slightly different, depending on the brand and the the slice, but most of them are like this is 110 calories for two slices for two, slices 50, 50 calories, calories per slice. Right. And in that serving, you get 11 grams of protein, a couple of grams of saturated fat. It's Not a problem. Listen to some of my other videos and absolutely no sugar and absolutely no carbohydrates. How is that not a health food? It's keto friendly. It's not going to raise your blood sugar. It's not going to raise your insulin. It's going to keep you full. I often use this as a fasting Aid in beginning fasting clients because it will keep them on a fast one. Slice will take the edge off your appetite. Make you feel good. Not raise your blood sugar, as I said earlier, it's a really this can be a really, really good addition. Ian to a diet, make sure you get it nitrate-free. Don't cook it. It's super high heat and you should be golden. That's my opinion.

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Is bacon unhealthy?

Abby Langer, RD

Abby Langer, RD

Jonathan Carp, MD

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD

Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS