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| Mmmm ... bacon. Photo: Jennifer Iserloh |
Enjoying regular bacon once in a while is OK if you have a clean bill of health. I always tell people to check in with their doctor or a nutritionist. Consulting a nutritionist can be a real eye-opener, but can also help you understand exactly how much saturated fat overall you're consuming and how to make healthier changes if you need to.
Read on for the healthiest way to cook bacon.
Nutritionists generally advise you to limit your daily saturated fat intake to under 20 grams, and just two slices of pork bacon is already 10 percent of your intake for the day. Turkey bacon is only slightly higher in sodium, compared with pork bacon, but it carries no saturated fat, and only one-sixth the total fat (about 1 gram) of pork bacon.
The Best Way to Cook Bacon
For one pound, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the bacon out on two large cookie sheets. Transfer to the oven and bake 10 to 20 minutes, depending on if you're cooking turkey bacon or pork bacon. Turn once throughout baking, until both sides are perfectly crisp. If you're baking pork bacon, transfer it to a paper towel to drain excess oil and fat.
Learn more about Jennifer at skinnychef.com, and read her exclusive Slashfood blogs every Monday and Friday.
6-22-2009 @1:16PM Spatter said... What does your oven look like after baking bacon? I suspect a lot of spattering.
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6-22-2009 @1:20PM Astin said... Depends on what brand of turkey bacon you use. Here's the COOKED numbers between generic medium-sliced fresh pork bacon and generic THIN-sliced turkey bacon:
Pork bacon (2 slices): 86 calores, 6.68g fat, 2.198g sat fat, 0.76 polyunsat fat, 2.964 monounsat fat, 18g cholesterol, 370g sodium, 90g potassium, 0.22g carbs, 5.92g protein.
Generic Turkey bacon (2 slices): 84 calories, 6.14g fat, 1.825 sat fat, 1.498 polyunsat fat, 2.398 monounsat fat, 22g cholesterol, 503g sodium (133g MORE than pork), 87g potassium, 0.68g carbs, 6.51g protein.
So if you look at them after they've been cooked, it's almost a dead even draw.
Now granted, since turkey bacon is a processed food, you can get any variety of mixtures. Pay for the lean, and it wipes out the fat. Trader Joe's uncured has no saturated fat. Sodium is all over the map as well.
I stopped using turkey or chicken bacon years ago when I realized that most brands were capitilizing on the image of it being healthier without actually BEING any different health-wise than the much better tasting original, and using pre-cooked metrics as the comparison (after all, poultry bacons don't change much after you cook 'em, but pork bacon loses a bunch of its fat to the cooking process).
Not that I'd suggest eating non-stop bacon. All things in moderation.
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6-22-2009 @1:48PM Jesse Harris said... The best way to bake bacon is on a broiler pan so that the fat drips away from the bacon. Not only does the bacon stay un-greasy, but you can avoid spattering issues as the rendered fat drips away.
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6-22-2009 @4:25PM marcella said... I ALWAYS cook bacon in the oven. I have a counter top toaster oven with convection and truly, it's the bomb! I can throw a whole pack on a rack with the pan underneath and it cooks up in 20 minutes. It's a bigger over, not usual toaster oven size and I put temp at 400. Oh, and thick cut bacon! Yum. Real all the way. Long ago read the labels of pork vs. poultry and let's not forget that pig fat has omega 3's in it and poultry fat does not. Pork RULES!!
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6-25-2009 @4:08PM Chief Dishwasher said... The best way to cook bacon is wrapped around a hot dog!
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6-26-2009 @3:59AM Stephen said... It’s OK once in a while?!? Clean bill of health?!? Who, today, has a clean bill of health with absolutely no problems whatsoever? Kevin Trudeau, probably.
Bacon, is one of those “foods” that should not be even considered a food. Think of it this way: would you eat a crow? What about earthworms? These aren’t foods even though they can be eaten. Pigs eat fecal matter and then you eat pig?!? Consider this; in Judaism pork is vulgar and unclean. In Islam pork is forbidden. Why is that? Because they knew then if an animal eats undesirable things it’s got to be bad for you. If Christians would read their Bible (Leviticus 11) they might understand. Yet, we missed that somehow in our ‘Modern’ era.
Another related issue is that we so easily give in; many don’t have self control & refuse to tell ourselves “no.”
Pork is a slow poison; it has a lot of triglycerides and a countless variety of toxins. Refusing bacon will improve health.
If you want to make yourself unhealthy, eat it up. Practice self discipline and at least slowly remove pork from your diet.
There are other ‘foods’ which impair our lives. http://a2127lnlbk8q2oasx0kcwi5u6y.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=PUN100
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