If your parents didn't read you this book as a kid, they didn't love you.
They probably would have read this book (NSFW language!) instead.
They probably would have read this book (NSFW language!) instead.
However, as you have probably guessed, I'm talking about "green" eggs and bacon here in a metaphorical sense. Public opinion would have you believe that these are both fairly bad for you, and you are better off eating a "balanced breakfast" of cereal and fruit juice, and maybe some low-fat sugar-yogurt. This is tied to the whole "fat phobia" but also the "cholesterol phobia."
I recently talked about the ignorance surrounding fat, but as for cholesterol, I'm not going into great detail because Fat Head (and the supplementary lectures) cover it adequately. Long story short, the important thing is this: dietary cholesterol intake has an insignificant impact on blood cholesterol, and total cholesterol levels are bad indicators of cardiovascular health anyway.
The Incredible Edible Egg
Chicken eggs are the classic breakfast food staple. They're pretty awesome when you think about them-- you can mass produce them without directly killing anything (Ohai, ovo-vegetarians!) and are cheap (I tried really hard to not make a pun right there), they are [relatively] durable and seemingly never go bad, and they are one of the most nutrient-dense foods ever. Vitamins, minerals, and tons of micronutrients like choline, on top of 6 grams of protein a pop, make them really good for you on top of leaving you satiated. After all, it's everything a chick needs to develop to the point of breaking out of its own shell. Oh, and if you haven't realized it, an egg is one giant cell. How cool is that?
Om nom nom nom nom
One of the worst offenses that the health fitness industry has committed against mankind is to spread the idea that yolks are bad for you, to the point of throwing them away so all you have is the egg whites left. The yolk is the best part, and to toss it is idiotic. There's a saying that goes something like this: "Mother Nature cries every time a yolk hits the wastebasket." If you want so badly to eat only the whites, go buy a carton of them at the store instead of whole eggs. That way the yolks don't go to waste and it's easier on you, since you don't have to strain out the whites.
Eggs are good for weight loss, and the calories (yolk-inclusive) are very much worth it. If one wants to cut calories, they should do so elsewhere.
Bacon (AKA meat candy)
Did you know that cooked bacon has roughly the same amount of fat (of which only 1/3 is saturated, by the way, if that even matters) and protein in it? That's probably a lot better than what you were led to believe. Bear in mind that cooked bacon is very different from raw bacon in terms of fat. It's a good, solid meat that's much better for you than sausage (although that tastes good too; I'm a sucker for bratwurst). Plus, it's delicious.
Remember this viral video? He was right all along!
It also turns out that turkey "bacon" is not better or worse for you, so you might as well eat the non-kosher stuff.
I love real bacon, but not as much as Ron Swanson:
And of course I have to mention EpicMealTime. To not do so when speaking of bacon would be a sin.
Bacon + Eggs = Win
"Bacon and eggs." It's like one unit. The archetypical epic breakfast combo:
More Parks and Recreation. This is obviously a good show.
Drawbacks
Since they are loved so much, bacon and eggs have to be mass-produced to keep up with demand. With that comes less-than-ideal products. Not to worry though, because they can be dealt with.
Bacon is usually cured with nitrates or nitrites. I don't know much about this, though, so here's a nice scholarly article if you're so inclined to read it. From what I gathered from this and other research is this: don't worry about it if you don't eat tons of bacon at once. If you do, it would benefit you to ingest some vitamin C (e.g., orange juice-- it just so happens to go perfectly with breakfast) or other antioxidants (I try to take some green tea extract every day. It's really good stuff.) to offset any possible bad effects of nitrites/nitrates.
It comes down to personal choice. I've eaten this exact kind before.
It tastes the same as cured bacon.
As for eggs, they are generally fine, but it should come as no surprise to you that the standard, inexpensive variety come from hens that spend most of their lives in a tiny cage in dreadful conditions. They are fed low-quality grains, which are probably infused with antibiotics and other great stuff. But that doesn't make the eggs bad, just sub-optimal.
Eh, it's not like they have feelings.
They're better off than the wee little piggies anyway.
Freakin' watermarks.
If you want optimal, buy the organic/free range eggs. Now, I'm not on the organic bandwagon (I actually buy the huge 36-egg value carton of regular eggs because I'm a college student) but if you're serious about putting only the best stuff into your body, buy the good stuff, because there is a difference: organic egg shells aren't all white, and their yolks are orange.
Not a huge difference, but it's obvious.
Presumably, more color = more nutrients.
Not all "cage-free" eggs are produced quite like this, though.
So now you know almost everything you could possibly want to about bacon and eggs. Don't avoid them; they're good for you, despite what many would like you to believe.
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