Here are some supposedly “dangerous” foods, that are actually quite healthy
Here are some supposedly “dangerous” foods, that are actually quite healthy. Photo | Photosearch
What you need to know:
Choose your source wisely and eat these foods. They’re a great addition to your family’s diet.
I’m not sure how it started, but somewhere along the line, it was decided that saturated fat was bad for the heart and that it should be avoided like the plague. Let’s take the example of the US where this message was rolled out in the 1970s. Since that time, not only has heart disease not declined, but the shift to eating more carbohydrate has left them in a middle of an obesity epidemic. It’s only now that people are beginning to realise that saturated fat isn’t as insidious as it’s been made out to be.
So here are some supposedly “dangerous” foods, that are actually quite healthy indeed.
- Meat
Let me start with some facts. While countless studies have linked the consumption of processed meat (bacon, sausages, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham and salami) to cancer, the same cannot be said for unprocessed meat. In fact, a 2010 study of 1.2 million people found that consumption of unprocessed red meat had absolutely no association with heart disease or diabetes.
The only problem is that the meat we eat isn’t that same as the meat our grandparents used to eat. In those days, chicken ran around eating dudus and seeds, while cows ate grass. Nowadays, everyone’s locked up to make them grow faster and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. They also tend to eat commercial grain-based feeds.
Does it matter? Well, meat from animals that are naturally raised is actually much healthier. Let’s take beef as an example. When cows are grass-fed, the meat contains more omega-3 fatty acids and less omega-6 (makes the meat less inflammatory), more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (helps to lower body fat in humans) and more vitamins, like vitamins A and E. Meat is also a great source of protein and contains a bunch of nutrients that you can’t really get from plants (for example vitamins B12, D3, K2, creatine and carnosine)
- Eggs
Eggs really are among the most nutritious foods out there. Just think, you have so many nutrients in there, there’s enough to create a whole baby chicken. Perhaps the question should be, why wouldn’t you eat an egg?
Well, many believe the cholesterol to be a problem, but studies have actually proven that cholesterol in the diet doesn’t really raise bad cholesterol in the blood. In fact, eggs raise good cholesterol, which in turn helps to mop up bad cholesterol. That probably helps to explain why a meta-analysis of 17 studies, found no association between egg consumption and either heart disease or stroke.
So choose your source wisely and eat these foods. They’re a great addition to your family’s diet.
