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Bacon: "No articles found."
That's the reply here when I searched for "Bacon" ... "No articles found." !!
Is bacon allowed on vAe? Or best avoided?
(I thought bacon was essential for human nutrition !)
Please advise.
Pork is loaded with vitamin A.
I remember posting about bacon at one point in my long tenure here haha:
https://ggenereux.blog/discussion/topic/i-ate-a-pound-of-bacon-ama/
I second Jessica's great post about pork above mine, but do want to say that for some reason some people in my family seem to have trouble with digesting pork fats. I seem to have trouble with the amines in bacon (it's an aged sort of food).
It occurs to me that possibly the fat of bacon or fatty pork just might have vitamin A, just like human fat probably has it. So you can probably go lean. My husband still enjoys a nice lean pork roast or lean ham sandwich but can't do bacon or sausage.
I think fatty pork may still be a problem as well. My husband's weight loss stalls pretty significantly when he eats bacon. But not fatty beef. He can eat a huge ribeye steak and 85% ground beef and wake up lighter.
Quote from Jessica2 on August 14, 2024, 6:46 amI think it's entirely dependent on the person. I can eat fatty pork products until the cows (sows? haha) come home and I lost weight still and maintain weight on daily bacon.
I think it's highly probable that the fatty acid profile is what gives people issues about pork. I'm not saying it's vitamin A free it might have some but I don't think it's chock-full or a very significant source of it.
Probably the same as all agricultural animals because all of their feeds are supplemented with VA. However, locally grown, more naturally-raised pork might have (ironically) MORE VA. In a sense more naturally-grown animals NEED un-supplemented feed.
Confinement animals might do better with the supplemented feeds because they aren't getting the normal amount of VA from green, growing plants. Which is maybe why we see some homesteading bloggers getting mysterious illnesses. But this isn't just about pork. On the plus side, animals that get outside will give you more Vitamin D, which is good.
My neighbor gets farm-stand refuse and I see piles of pumpkins and peaches and etc in her open-air pig pen.
Science fraud all the way down eventually shows up. Many forms of vitamin A that do not get tested. Of course they are not finding much vitamin A in pork. They are not looking for it. Hope this is not throwing pearls before swine. Clearly pig has vitamin A in various forms. Clearly Grant is a healthier person for not eating vitamin A. Clearly vitamin A is not a nutrient.
Unless of course one can explain away how someone so old and so vitamin A deficient for so long can possibly still be improving on a diet he undertook and stuck with for 10 years. Not three months of this with some of that. Not 6 months here on this diet switching over to that one because this food no longer matters.
TEN YEARS of documented deficiency and depletion of a substance that supposedly is vital to life.
And since the diet is difficult and presents different tough issues to different people, then for sure discount and dismiss Grant's explanation for his success. Go figure that in the first years of any diet people will have difficulties and needed adjustments. The test comes at least 2 years in when improvements start or do not. Each year after only increases the credibility of the tested theory.
So please let us know how that moderate vitamin A diet works out in 5 years. Just like we want to hear from all the 5 to 6 egg a day folk who have been at it for 5 years.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14795286/
An unknown factor with vitamin A activity distilled from lard - PubMed (nih.gov)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14808247/
Relation of vitamin A and "lard factor" to disease caused by rancid lard - PubMed (nih.gov)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1269380/
Studies in vitamin A. 26. The vitamin A-replacing effect of lard - PMC (nih.gov)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13109574/
Nature of the vitamin A-like factor in lard - PubMed (nih.gov)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13203849/
VITAMIN A activity of lard - PubMed (nih.gov)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13186866/
Identification of the so-called "lard factor" as vitamin A - PubMed (nih.gov)
I don't think there is a zero-VA diet on the planet. The sun shines so harshly, and plants use VA pigments to shield themselves from it, and animals eat the plants. It's not there for animals, it's there for plants. (as are other plant toxins, like those that deter bugs or those that keep seeds from digesting)
But of course, animal life had to figure out how to proceed in spite of the VA pigments. At least long enough to live a normal life span. When you get mysterious illnesses when young, you have toxed too quickly. (and not all toxins are from plants, for instance, aluminum). You can try to reign back, you can try to support detox.
I'm so glad to have an explanation for bland foods like white rice and white wheat. Why are they ubiquitously used, why do they taste so good? (if other foods are so supposedly much better for us?). I would put all lean meat (including pork) into the category of "purposefully wonderfully bland".
Some toxins have usages, and VA might too. But they are almost always dual-edged swords.
I think the notion that Grant, Jessica and I have noticed that we don't catch colds anymore is awfully strange and I hope not a sign of something bad (like not having guns in the arsenal). But hopefully it is something good. Like the body isn't choosing to get viruses anymore, say because perhaps the body chooses to go through a bucket full of mucus to get rid of deeply-stored VA.
Re: Eating pork: Look at Asian cuisine: Japanese and Chinese love pork. And in general, Asian women look the youngest. Slim, childlike faces. Hair loss also seems to be less common.
Great post, Jessica. Ham is a different story, as LilChick pointed out. I don't do well with bacon either, it's the curing that makes it somewhat problematic.
And: Count me in: I haven't had a cold in years. My brother, on the other hand, suffers from them regularly, despite much better function.
I think a cold every now and then is healthy, it shows the immune system can mount a response. Some say the fever is what prevents cancers down the road. And as we know cancer is number 2 cause of death. I haven't been sick in just over a yr. I usually get a small fever once per yr at least. I guess if the body IS getting healthier then maybe it's okay.
I haven't had a cold in 4.5 years. I had a very runny nose for 3 days. Approaching 5 years lower vitamin A. 2.3 years on more eggs, betaine and B1 foods like pork. Everything keeps improving therefore my hunch is lack of colds is a good sign. I eat pork mince in burgers. I do better with nitrate free bacon.