While I've got you here DJ:
What about bacon? I pretty much only use Bacon, butter and olive oil.
Off topic: Busy reading up on alcohol intake atm (got there from the cardiac wiki page)...kinda surprised at the numbers. Lots of countries reckon one can safely do 3x glasses of wine a day.![]()
Bacon? Awesome as part of a low carb diet. Might be bad for you if you're munching a lot of carbs though and have the resultant onset of cardiovascular inflammation. It is a long chain fatty acid that is chock full of omega 6. In health terms, it appears that the improper ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 is one of the contributive factors towards possible cardiovascular issues, however once again this is simply a contributive factor to underlying causes. In general terms, it is not really all that unhealthy though. Munch away at crispy bacon. Cook in bacon fat. Just don't base your entire diet around bacon and other omega 6 rich foods. If you want to healthily munch bacon, then just find a way to increase your omega 3 intake and you're sorted.
EDIT: let me explain, really briefly and simplistically, about the sugars and carbs thing - carbs and sugars when they enter the body raise your triglyceride levels. This is a bad thing. It lowers HDL cholesterol - this is a bad thing. It also pumps your body full of really small, dense LDL cholesterol, which is an awful thing, as they penetrate arterial walls and lead to further inflammation of the cardiovascular system.
Sugar and carbs are effectively the devil for health. Fat is not! Fat is good. Saturated fat is good. In fact hardly any of the cholesterol found in saturated fat is actually bad for you in any discernible way, to such an extent that if you are eating a high carb and high sugar diet, monitoring your saturated fat intake is pointless. The carbs and sugar are causing the real issues in any case and the long chain fatty acids will simply contribute further down the line. But remove the carbs and sugar, or at least lower it significantly, and you'll be fine.
Cholesterol is actually a good thing. Cholesterol is there to effectively repair the cardiovascular system. That is its job for the most part. Inflammation causes the real problems...
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