It's breakfast time and you are about to enjoy a plate of bacon and eggs, but wait before you pull out that frying pan for your bacon and consider for a moment the health effects you would suffer from frying your bacon.

Bacon has traditionally been a cured meat. The curing process helps to preserve the meat, but a naturally cured product can have an unappetizing color to it. Meat processors noticed this and began to add nitrates to their meats in order to help cured meats maintain a healthy looking pink hue. What was unknown at the time was that those added nitrates can cause cancer. This was due to the compound created from the amines naturally in meat combined with the added sodium nitrate. The result are nitrosamines.

A study done in the 1970s revealed the carcinogenic properties of nitrosamines in the cured meat products. Bacon was among those studied, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lowered the amount of added nitrates permitted in cured meats, but sodium nitrate was still needed to be added to meats to prevent the development of botulism.

So today, cured meats, such as bacon, still have added nitrates, and consequentially, nitrosamines, but you can lower the amount that you absorb from your morning bacon by taking a few steps. The first is to not fry your bacon. Frying bacon releases more of these nitrosamines, but you can have your pork and eat it too with fewer carcinogens if you cook it in the microwave.

Microwaved bacon results in crispy bacon, and if you do it properly, it will be less greasy and have less fat and cancer causing compounds. All you need to have crunchy bacon in just minutes are a microwave safe plate and some paper towels. Just put three or four layers of paper towels on the plate. Lay the bacon on top in a single layer. Then top the bacon with three more layers of paper towels. Put the whole thing into the microwave for about three minutes on high power. Your microwave might take more or less time depending on the wattage. After three minutes, blot the bacon with the paper towels, and let cool for about a minute before enjoying with your eggs. Besides lowering the amount of nitrosamines and fat in your morning bacon, you also will not have to clean out a separate frying pan.

Remember to microwave your bacon next time instead of frying it to make your morning meat healthier and tastier.

Comments