

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD
Dietitian, Bestselling Author, Media Contributor
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.