What’s So Bad about BACON? (Truth about Bacon Safety) 2023

All your life, you've probably been told to avoid eating bacon at all costs. Bacon is a highly processed, toxic meat that's going to contribute to cancer and heart disease. It's full of saturated fat. It's all saturated fat. Well, that that's a bunch of crap. In this video, I'm going to actually tell the truth about bacon, help you understand this nutritious food and why you should incorporate bacon as part of your proper human diet. I'm Dr Ken Berry, a family physician, and this video is going to tell the truth about bacon. It's time to stop demonizing bacon. Show more

First of all, let's dispel all the myths about bacon that are not true, but yet we all believe at least one of these myths. I bet you believe at least one of these, and so let's start with. Bacon is a highly processed meat. Show more

No, bacon is cut off the carcass of the pig and it is cured using salt, a process that human beings have been using for over 7 000 years. It is not done in a chemical Factory like pea protein and impossible Burgers. There's nothing processed about it. You literally slice it up and cook it. The next myth is that bacon is all saturated fat and it's going to give you a heart attack. First of all, the majority of fat in bacon is monounsaturated fatty acids, and the most predominant one is oleic acid. Now, you may have heard of that in another context. That's actually the most predominant fat in olive oil. It's the reason that the Mediterranean diet became so popular, because it's full of oleic acid from Olive Oil. Well, bacon is also full of oleic acid, making it quite Mediterranean and also very good for your heart. The the so most people believe that bacon is the whole saturated fat, and saturated fat actually makes up the second most prominent constituent of the fatty acid profile in bacon. There is saturated fat in bacon, but the American Heart Association, who is the preeminent World Authority on all things that are going to cause you to have a heart attack, they've been quietly stepping away from the hypothesis that eating saturated fat is going to give you a heart attack. In fact, they've completely taken that out of their guidelines and but but we still hear this from dietitians and an uneducated doctors who say, oh, it's full of saturated fat, it'll give you a heart attack. This is, I call this the echo of the LIE. Even though the preeminent authorities have stopped saying this, it still echoes in our society. I actually talk about the echo of the line my book Lies. My doctor told me what about the myth that bacon is full of nitrates and they're bad for you and they'll give you cancer? Show more

Well, actually, there are several big pharmaceutical companies who are now trying to get FDA approval on a pill full of nitrates, because they actually help lower your blood pressure so much. Your salivary glands, your spit glands in your mouth, they actually secrete more nitrates into your mouth per day than you could get from eating a pound of bacon a day. Nitrates are not bad for you, they're good for you. Show more

Another echo of the lies that bacon is full of cholesterol and that's going to cause heart disease again. The American Heart Association now considers cholesterol, dietary cholesterol that you eat- to not be a molecule of concern whatsoever. They stopped recommending a maximintake. They don't care about it anymore. But yet your doctor, your dietitian, your mama might still tell you that eating cholesterol will increase your risk of heart attack. It's an echo of the lie that the authorities are no longer telling. It's just not true. The next myth that needs to be dispelled about bacon is that all the salt in bacon is going to give you a heart attack. This is again being proven that it was a hypothesis, but we just can't get any control research to prove that that's actually true- that eating a diet that is salted to taste- which means that if it tastes good to you, that's that's a good, healthy amount of salt. There are actually multiple medical conditions that are that are caused or made worse by eating a diet that's too low in salt. Salt is not going to give you a heart attack. The next myth that needs to die is that eating bacon will give you cancer. Every single shred of evidence, as weak it is as it is, that shows a possible association between eating bacon and cancer is all epidemiological observational research based on food frequency questionnaires. Show more

There has never- listen carefully- there has never been a single controlled trial that showed causation between eating bacon and increasing your rate of developing any cancer. The research does not exist. The last one is that if you eat too much bacon, you're going to have a heart attack because it's a highly processed meat. We've already dealt with that myth, but when we again, when we look at the research in humans, there's not a single controlled trial that shows that eating bacon as much as bacon as you want is going to increase your risk of having a heart attack. This is a myth. It needs to die. Now let's talk about the actual nutrition, the stuff that's good for you, that's contained in bacon. So if we talk about three slices of bacon- and I, for one, would never only eat three slices, my minimis six slices- well, how many slices do you eat when you eat bacon? I hope it's more than three, but if we just took three as a just a standard serving at a restaurant, you're going to be getting 12 grams of Highly absorbable protein in three slices of bacon. Show more

You're going to be getting zero milligrams of sugar unless the they added sugar to the curing process. You're going to be getting four milligrams of calcithat's highly absorbable- your body can use that. You're going to be getting a milligram of iron that's very easily absorbed in your body and used to combat things like iron deficiency anemia. You're going to be getting 11 milligrams of magnesithat your body needs and uses for hundreds of different things. You're going to be getting 175 milligrams of potassiyeah heart healthy potassibacon is rich in that. You're going to be getting a milligram of zinc that your body needs from many different functions. You're going to be getting 18 micrograms of selenivery important. You need your selenievery day. I suggest get it from bacon. You're going to be getting 30 milligrams of choline. If you want to know how important choline is, I have a whole video dedicated to that on this YouTube channel. You're going to be getting 13 units of real vitamin A when you eat three slices of bacon- not the beta carotenoids that come in veggies, but real vitamin A. You're going to be getting six units of vitamin D- the real vitamin D you can actually use. You're going to be getting a small amount of all the B vitamins that your body needs for optimal function. Bacon is also a great source of phosphorus, so the next time your doctor or your dietitian or your mama tells you they can ban for you, please share this video with them and help them to understand the truth about bacon. Bacon has been denigrated long enough. It's time for this to stop. It's time for us to stand up for bacon and help people understand just how healthy it is. If you believe in bacon, if you're ready to make a stand for bacon, if you eat bacon very often, then it sounds like you may be a member of our tribe. You should join us on patreoncom and become part of our private Community. This is Dr Barry. I'll see you next time. Show more