Bacon Grease Is the Healthy Oil
Is bacon grease really healthy? People in my office stress out about getting all the healthy fats and the right amino acids. I am asked all the time, which protein powder they should be taking? Do I prefer fish oil or krill oil? My answer to this is simple.
“Bacon grease.”
I know, I can see it on your face now. . . the blank stare of disbelief.
Yes, I said “bacon grease.”
If you are following a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet, bacon grease is your essential oil. Let me explain why:
Bacon Contains All The Essential Amino Acids
Bacon, and the grease it creates, contains all the essential amino acids. Yes, even the coveted branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). Go ahead, have 3-5 slices for breakfast, but keep the grease and re-use it to cook with. Because your saving yourself from having to buy expensive protein powders and less tasty versions of these essential muscle building blocks.
Bacon Is A Great Source of Choline
Bacon grease is a great source of choline, an essential nutrient for stabilizing cell membranes and making the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is one of the neurotransmitters absent in memory disorders and muscle disease. Fascinatingly, choline helps in the prevention of fatty liver disease, a disease caused by the standard American diet that often progresses to non-alcoholic liver disease.
Choline has also been shown in a number of studies to help ward off Alzheimer’s Disease.
Bacon Grease Contains All The B-Vitamins
Bacon fat is a superb source of all of the necessary B vitamins. It is also a superb source of Vitamin D, phosphorus, magnesium and iron. In fact all of the fat soluble vitamins – any vitamin that sounds like a letter of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, etc.- are found in animal fat.
Bacon Grease Suppresses Appetite
Long-Chain fatty acids are satiating. Bacon grease is a great source of the longer chain fatty acids and has a wonderful effect on suppressing your appetite. That’s why Dr. Nally talks about it so often. Bacon is the duct tape of the culinary world, and acts to suppress the cravings for the pie that might arise 30-60 minutes later.
Bacon Brings Happiness
When have you ever felt a frown after eating bacon? That’s my point . . . you just smiled when that thought crossed your mind. Seriously, don’t deny it . . .
Put a piece of bacon in your mouth, and it doesn’t really matter who the president is, what Kim Kardashian recently posted, or that you’re late for work . . . seriously. Bacon in your mouth reminds you how good life really is. If I die while eating a plate of bacon, my life will be complete.
My wife fries eggs in bacon grease for breakfast when she cooks. I tell you . . . it’s edible love.
Bacon Stimulates the Heart
Bacon grease also contains a significant amount of medium chain triglycerides (caproic, caprylic, capric, and lauric acids). These medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) are all the rage in helping to maintain a ketogenic diet. MCTs convert rapidly into ketones after absorption into the liver from the gut. Rapid conversion of fat into ketones stimulate more effective contraction of the heart. When the heart contracts more effectively, it releases atrial-naturitic peptide (ANP), that opens the “back door” in the fat cell allowing for more efficient fat burning and maintenance of ketosis.
Bacon Smells So Good
Many people us essential oils for the aromatic effect they produce on mood and anxiety. Next time you cook bacon, check your mood. Never has there been an aroma that is so inviting and calming. Very few other aromas actually bring people to a dinner table. And for you men out there, bacon grease improves your manhood. Increased presence of ketones, and the appetite suppressing effect of bacon grease helps to stabilize testosterone and leucine. This improves muscle development, enhances libedo, and prevents the progressive decline in testosterone leading to the “girly-man” status that occurs with so many men eating the standard American diet.
Let me leave you with one last question. When is the last time you saw left-over bacon?
Exactly – the same time you saw leprechauns riding unicorns down your street after a rain storm.
So, cook that bacon . . . and save the grease. Use it to cook your eggs or bake with it. You’ll thank me later.