Bacon is healthy?

[bright_eyes]

I have always thought that bacon was not healthy because of the nitrates but I was reading in the thread on what to do with bacon fat that a lot of you eat a lot of bacon.

What kind of bacon do you eat? What should I look for when reading ingredients on a package of bacon or talking to a butcher that sells bacon?

[dachshundqueen]

Buy uncured bacon, it's free of chemicals. You will still want to check on how it was raised though.

Liz

ETA: Our CSA farmer has the BEST bacon......yummy!

[bright_eyes]

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

Buy uncured bacon, it's free of chemicals. You will still want to check on how it was raised though.

Liz

ETA: Our CSA farmer has the BEST bacon......yummy!

I don't think I've ever seen uncured bacon. Do most stores sell it? There is a farmer here that sells pastured animals, including pork, so they probably have uncured bacon. But all their meat is waaaay out of our price range. So I think I'm stuck with store bought or no bacon at all.

[guestmama9904]

unless your bacon says it is nitrate/nitrite free it most likely does have added nitrates. however, all cured meat does have some naturally occuring nitrates. bacon is pretty high in protein, the kind i got at whole foods read 7 grams protein per pecice! also if the pigs ate their natural diet and were allowed to forage outside on grass the fat will be high in cla and omega 3s.

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

You can actually get uncured bacon from Niman Ranch, which is available I think in most stores. I buy it at Trader Joes all the time.

[eastkygal]

Oscar Meyer makes a "natural" uncured bacon that says nitrite free, but of course it is your regular hog lot hogs. Whole Foods also sells several brands of uncured bacon. We love both bacon and sausage here.

[llamalluv]

Is chocolate really that healthy? Or ice cream? No, but it's tasty. Not everything in your diet has to be healthy.

Just like not every book you read needs to be an autobiography or a serious novel. Sometimes I like to read a trashy VC Andrews novel, and sometimes I like to eat bacon.

[Alyantavid]

I think the quality of bacon really depends on what the pigs eat. We raise our own and do have our bacon cured, but I'm fine with the unhealthy aspect of it because I know what our pigs ate and how they were raised and I'm much more comfortable eating my bacon than anything that comes out of a store. Even if it isn't completely "healthy".

[AJP]

Originally Posted by arismama!

also if the pigs ate their natural diet and were allowed to forage outside on grass the fat will be high in cla and omega 3s.

I don't think pigs have the ability to make CLA, I'm pretty sure that's exclusive to ruminants (cows, goats, sheep, deer). I'm not sure about the omega-3s, but pigs don't actually eat that much grass (the source of omega-3s) even when it's available, they prefer to plow up the grass to eat what's underground, like roots and bugs. (There is one breed of pig that is known to be a better grass-eater and less of a grass-digger-upper, but it's a rare breed.) Certainly the meat and fat from pastured pigs will have many other nutritional advantages over confined pigs, but I'm pretty sure CLA isn't among them, and I don't think omega-3s are either.

One big advantage is that pigs raised with free access to sunshine will make and store vit. D in their fat.

I believe bacon is healthy if it doesn't have added chemicals, and is from properly-raised animals. If you can't find it locally, there are places to order it. It's also pretty easy to make at home, if you have a way to cool smoke it (a BBQ won't do). If you can get your hands on a pastured pork belly, you can cure and smoke it yourself. Rigging a cool smoker at home isn't that hard with a little ingenuity, I've seen a lot of stuff online with instructions, and plenty of recipes for curing without the chemicals. (We bought a Bradley smoker, which wasn't cheap, but we've used it for all kinds of things besides bacon, like ham, Canadian bacon, turkey, chicken, pastrami, fish.)

[mrsskeffington]

Bacon is teh best! I usually flip mine with a wooden spoon, cause, you know..it's just better that way.

[mrsskeffington]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

Sometimes I like to read a trashy VC Andrews novel, and sometimes I like to eat bacon.

I prefer to do both simultaneously.

[Metasequoia]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

Is chocolate really that healthy? Or ice cream? No, but it's tasty. Not everything in your diet has to be healthy.

I don't consider chocolate & ice cream unhealthy - in fact, I think of ice cream as a health food!

Raw milk, raw cream, raw egg yolks, maple syrup & strawberries (or chocolate or vanilla...)

[bright_eyes]

When reading the thread on what to do with bacon fat, it sounds like a lot of people here eat bacon on a fairly regular basis. Do most people here only buy uncured bacon from pastered pigs?

I never buy bacon (because of the nitrates), but lately I've been wanting some for extra protein in the morning and have felt like getting some bacon, or even sausage. But I can't afford the healthy stuff right now and I am someone who would rather not eat something on a regular basis if it is unhealthy for me. Which is why I wanted to know how healthy bacon is, and if the cured stuff from the store is really that bad.

[LionTigerBear]

We buy the Oscar Meyer nitrate-free bacon. We don't eat a lot of it, though. We used to get the Applegate farms nitrate-free kind, and ate more of it, but that is more expensive and we can't afford it anymore.

[mama_b]

Our Kroger sells uncured bacon. It's $5 per package.

[JennaW]

Originally Posted by kaleidoscopeeyes

You can actually get uncured bacon from Niman Ranch, which is available I think in most stores. I buy it at Trader Joes all the time.

Did you happen to read the article in SF Gate last weekend? It was talking about how Mr. Niman won't even eat their products anymore because he doesn't believe in the practices of the new owners

[pampered_mom]

It seems like most folks around here that call it "uncured" bacon are really talking about the bacon by folks like Oscar Mayer, Applegate which does have nitrates in it. It's just that the nitrates come from the celery juice/lactic acid starter culture or other "natural" nitrate source.

There is actually nitrate free stuff out there, but it's not going to taste like any bacon you'd be familiar with. It's not pink and has a very different taste. You can also get hams, hot dogs, etc this way. I'm not a fan of it, but thought I'd mention the distinction.

We stick with the nitrate stuff - either like the first one I mentioned or some more conventional stuff (I know, Gasp! right?) because to me it's just not bacon the other way.

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

Originally Posted by JennaW

Did you happen to read the article in SF Gate last weekend? It was talking about how Mr. Niman won't even eat their products anymore because he doesn't believe in the practices of the new owners

I read an interview with him re: goat farming I think it was, some months ago. It is disheartening. The bacon is the only NR product I still buy. It's one of my compromises...it just tastes soo good.

[Drummer's Wife]

I don't know if it's really healthy, but we eat quite a bit of bacon. :

eta: I buy it by the pound from the butcher at Albertsons. It still has nitrates but to me, it tastes better than the packaged stuff.

[snowbunny]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

Is chocolate really that healthy? Or ice cream? No, but it's tasty. Not everything in your diet has to be healthy.

Chocolate's not so bad and I can make a hella good (and healthy) ice cream! :