Why on earth would you ever eat fucking bacon?!?!, you ask incredulously.
Good question!
Bacon = 🤮
But here’s the thing…
While bacon is indeed a high-calorie food with 60-70 percent of its calories coming from fat, it’s due to this nutritional makeup that bacon makes sense for individuals who need a surplus of calories to build muscle. But even when that’s not the case, bacon is still a good food choice.
On account of bacon being a notoriously fatty cut of meat, there’s concern that eating it can contribute to weight gain and health issues. That fear of the latter, however, is largely unfounded because it turns out that more than 50 percent of the fat found in bacon is the monounsaturated kind that lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Further, the typical serving size of bacon is small and that renders the fat content less of a concern than it’s made out to be. As for the former, what contributes to weight gain is consuming more calories than you should on a daily basis — not bacon itself, let alone any other food.
When consumed in moderation so you don’t overshoot your calorie requirements, bacon can’t hurt your waistline. In fact, bacon may actually help with weight management. That’s so via the fat content in bacon, which promotes satiety to help regulate the appetite, as does the protein. Additionally, by way of containing the hormone coenzyme Q10, bacon may also help the body burn fat when combined with exercise.
As mentioned above, bacon is a source of protein. That nutrient, however, doesn’t only help with controlling hunger but it’s also essential for the repair and growth of muscle. Other nutrients that are provided in bacon that are of importance from a fitness perspective include a good amount of the B vitamins that help convert food into energy so the body can perform any of a number of functions, such as the cellular processes necessary to sustain life and those that facilitate movement for daily activity and exercise, and organic compounds and minerals like iron, choline, and potassium, all of which have their own respective function in things like oxygen transport, fat metabolism, and muscle contraction, to name a few.
Yeah, I know, bacon sounds mighty, mighty tasty right about now!
NOTE: The nutritional values are based on American-style side bacon, which is made from the belly of pigs and is fatty. Canadian bacon, or back bacon, is a leaner cut of meat from the back of the pig.
Bacon Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 slice, cooked (8g)
• Calories: 43
• Total Fat: 3.3g
• Cholesterol: 9mg
• Sodium: 137mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 0.4g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.1g
• Sugar: 0g
• Protein: 3g
Glossary: calories, dietary fat, exercise, fat, fitness, food, hormones, moderation, muscle, vitamin
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