I know I’m gonna ruffle a few feathers with this one but that’s fine with me.
I love breakfast. So much so that I sometimes have two breakfasts, usually when I’m training hard for something.
This morning I ate a grilled steak sandwich on sprouted grain non-wheat bread with lettuce and a grilled egg. It was awesome, and I’m not even starving for a snack before lunch, so breakfast did its job. It gave me the fuel I need to provide me with energy and focus, and it has kept me feeling full and satisfied.
Often I will eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, and sometimes I’ll eat it for lunch or dinner, and I never get sick of it.
How is bacon healthy?
Isn’t the fat bad for you?
What about too many eggs?
How do I cook the eggs?
What about cholesterol?
Before I get into the details, if you are gonna have bacon and eggs for breakfast make sure to cook up plenty of vegetables to go with them. Spinach, mushrooms and tomato are traditionally foods we would eat at breakfast but any vegetables you have around will be fine.
Try to avoid the bread, but if absolutely necessary, eat non wheat bread, and sprouted grain varieties are best. Wheat is proving to cause many health problems, but we’ll go into that in a future article.
Remember for weight loss we are trying to get you to increase your protein intake as a priority, and encouraging you to cut your sugar and processed food intake.
Let’s start with eggs.
Eggs are a natural product, not pre-packaged or had human interference with them. This is a really good start.
What kind should I buy?
In order of best to worst here’s my list of healthy egg options.
– From your own chooks that are fed food scraps, because you know exactly what they are eating
– Free range organic. To get certified organic they have to jump through hoops and meet guidelines for many years so they are legit
– Omega 3 free range eggs – the chickens are running around and fed an omega 3 enriched diet. I don’t know if its grain fed or something else, but grain fed isn’t ideal as grains don’t have the same nutrients in them as fruit and vegetables.
– Free range
– Cage eggs
Is it worth paying the extra money for them?
Hospital visits are expensive as is medicine, and I’m paying a lot of money to get better from my chronic fatigue so to me it’s worth it. You can make you own mind up.
What’s the best way to cook them?
1. Poach.
2. Boil.
3. Scramble.
4. Fry.
5. Microwave.
How about cholesterol?
I’m sure mine is fine and there’s research suggesting eggs may actually help to improve cholesterol.
Read what this article says from the website ‘The World’s Healthiest Foods’
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=92
Should you eat eggs every day and can you eat too many?
I wouldn’t eat eggs every day, but you can do most days. They are far better than any cereal that’s around. But you are better to rotate them with some other protein source at breakfast like leftovers from last night’s dinner.
How many should you eat in the one sitting?
For ladies 2-3 is fine and for most guys 3-5 will be fine, but it also depends on what you have with the eggs. If you’re eating bacon and eggs then it’s a little different as you are getting extra protein from the meat and extra calories from the fat.
Moving on to Bacon.
I’m gonna start with a quote from a book I love by Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution.
“I had a lot of bacon for breakfast today. Also had an EKG, blood work, BP-106/54. The doctor said I’m the healthiest person he has seen in years.”
First of all, eating fat will not make you fat. The two are different things altogether. Fat as an energy source will help fuel the body for daily activity. Body fat is stored most of the time due to excessive carbohydrate (sugar) consumption, as there is only so many carbs that can be used in a day.
Bacon does contain plenty of saturated fat though and this too is not a bad thing. If saturated fat is bad why did the Eskimo who eat a ton of saturated fat their entire lives survive? Saturated fat has been a fuel source from many primal tribes for centuries.
What about bacon and cholesterol?
Here’s a quote from Stephen Guyenet, Ph. D (biochemist/neurobiologist author of Whole Health Source)
“When investigators analyzed the relationship between saturated fat intake, serum cholesterol and heart attack risk, they were so disappointed that they never formally published the results.”
The pharmaceutical industry makes a ton of money scaring us into needing cholesterol lowering drugs. But lifestyle factors such as stress, smoking, drinking alcohol and excess sugar intake are the real culprits. They are just harder for us to change and we are often looking for a quick fix.
I could go into more detail, but it’s not necessary. If you want to know more it’s all explained in detail in this article here: http://balancedbites.com/2011/05/bacon-health-food-or-devil-in-delicious-disguise.html.
So next time you feel like bacon and eggs for breakfast, dont feel guilty because you are contibuting to your long term health and a tighter waistline. Just make sure to follow the suggestions above and you’ll be doing great.
Enjoy!
Travis Sawyer
Perth Personal Trainer
Try my Perth Bootcamp Free For 2 Weeks! Just click on one of the links to sign up.
