Yes, what you “know” could be different each time a new scientific result is published. And which one is the real truth is anybody guess. The question is now how we take all of those “knowledge”….

Bacon and Egg, Good or Bad ?

Bacon, Egg and Milk….

That’s probably the ingredient of most people in western civilization. Since I have mentioned them, let’s take a quick look about some controversy around these common foods.

Bacon

• Against: Full of fat, high in cholesterol. It’s cured meat, hence contains nitrates that may link to COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), also pancreatic cancer. It also has high amount of sodium.
• Pro: About half of the fat contains in bacon is monounsaturated fat. (Unsaturated fat is considered “good fat” and should be part of your healthy diet) So bacon will lower cholesterol level. And, no, the nitrate on the bacon is the one protects our heart from heart attack. Some even dubbed bacon as “super food”.

Egg

• Against: High Cholesterol especially the yolk.
• Pro: Contains all vitamin and mineral essential to live (remember, chicken egg can be a chick?), actually lower cholesterol (because low in saturated fat) and lower the risk of heart attack, good for the eyes.

Milk

• Pro: This is the most common what we hear about milk: healthy food, “perfect” nutrient, full of calcium – good for bones and teeth, protection against osteoporosis, reducing heart disease risk, even help burns fat, etc..  Some of the keys references is here.
• Against:  Milk is the worst choice source of Calcium as it also rich in protein. This animal protein produce acidic ash (as opposed to alkaline ash if protein is sourced from plant/vegetables). To neutralize, the body will withdraw Calcium from bone which will weaken it, i.e.: osteoporosis. (So, causing osteoporosis instead of protecting us from any). Furthermore, Cow’s milk is for cow, not for human and some other consequences.

There are many other contradiction that will never end to discus here: Is fat good or bad ? Is vegetarian good or bad ? Butter or Margarine ? Soy milk good or bad? and so on. I am not to convince you that one argument is better than the other as they will show you the corresponding data for each that support their conclusion, my only point is: if even the expert cannot agree on things that they are expert in, how do we take it ? What we are supposed to do, then ?

The fact is, your body will know….

Yes, this is actually an easy and the ultimate solution. Human body is the most complicated system that even human themselves have not fully understand it all. And to make it more complex, every single one of us have unique (not exactly the same) capability and behaviour of our internal system of the body. Agree?

Some of us have certain sensitivity of particular food, other people maybe do not have it all. Yes, this is makes medicine or nutrients science become complicated as they try to generalize everything into one common theory that can be studied more systematically. And of course there are some commercial interest as well: milk industry will say milk is good, egg association will say egg is good and bacon industry will say that bacon is good. That’s pretty easy to understand, right?

But, in my opinion, the safest thing to do for each of you is to listen to your own body. If certain type of food giving you problem, no matter what other people say, it’s not good for your body. On the contrary, even a food is said to be bad, if you already consumed it for years and did not giving you problem, then it’s not bad for you. As easy as that.

Why didn’t Eskimo/Inuit who eat blubber, raw meat and fish did not usually get heart attack because of their eating? (Try to eat the same for some long period if you dare, I bet it will deteriorate our health) – that’s because their bodies have adjusted to the culture and custom. Probably if they eat less than that they might get sick. This is just to show how marvellous is our own human body.

Remember:

1. Because it’s natural (not man-made, from nature), it does not mean it’s good for you: poisonous mushroom, venomous snake, etc.
2. Because it’s being processed, it doesn’t mean the natural form is better for you: almond (poisonous without heat treated as contains cyanide), bacon(!), etc

Listen to Your Own Body

Listen to your body means you know yourself what’s good or bad for you. If you don’t know, then just try. As long as you take it gently, your body will tell you whether that particular food compatible or not with your existing system. Yes, it is beneficial also to know the common knowledge, but make sure you don’t get obsessed by it.

The fact that somebody publish the latest research contrary with what you do, it does not have any effect at all to your existing body. For example, I have been drinking coffee the whole life and have no particular problem with my health at all. Now that somebody conclude their research that drinking coffee is very bad causing this and that, will that mean that I suddenly get sick ? Of course, not… If you wait enough, the next research will tell you that drinking coffee is the best thing that you could do… See, it will never end…

So, remember you are supposed to be the most knowledgeable about your own body. Not your doctor. Your doctor only say something or advice something based on the knowledge (remember generalized knowledge) that he/she got from the medicine school. Of course, most of it it is beneficial to follow the advise but do not blindly obey. Understand what it’s all about, compare it with your own experience so far, if you then do what the doctor said, that’s because you have decided that the advice makes sense. If in doubt, get a second opinion from similar field or alternative advise.

The main thing is follow your heart, listen to your body and enjoy life….