Bacon

M0nica - Love it . We won't miss a few hours we never had!

I think I will settle down in front of the tv this evening with a bacon butty and a large glass of wine contemplating the fact that by so doing I may be shortening my life by a few hours.

Now that we can get these essentials easily, we just have to adapt to the new conditions. It'll take a while but why worry when people are living longer, dying of fewer diseases and things are generally improving for human beings? (Yes, I know there are still huge problems but they're not as huge as they were).

We need some salt, jings. In fact it's so essential in the correct quantities that it used to be currency, reflecting it's value to humans. Like sugar/sweet food, it used to be much more difficult to obtain. So, yeah, there'll be an evolutionary reason for our love of salty things too.

Everything in moderation has been our excuse for anything we want. Seems to work. If you have no other issues, hickory smoked bacon is lovely, and you can generally get it at Lidl.

French or Swiss butter does not contain salt- and it certainly tastes of ... butter - and not just 'grease' I can assure you. Mind you, I also like salted British butter- but just sayin'.

Bags what about the fact that we like a salty taste too? And we do. Think of the sales of crisps, savoury biscuits etc. Not mention butter which, without a bit of salt, would taste like - just grease.

No. Never buy Danish bacon!

Absolutely. DD1 used to be vegetarian for many years- and bacon 'turned her back' - but they only buy meat from their local butcher which he can source and guarantee husbandry. We had several types of best of British bacon over Christmas, as well as a freerange turkey, and great beef too.

Don't touch Danish bacon, but please granjura dont let that horror stop you enjoying properly raised British bacon.

granjura that is why all the meat I buy is organic. Organic meat, by definition, has to meet the highest animal welfare standards.

I agree granjura - it's why I never buy Danish bacon.

Can't understand why the Danes tolerate such conditions.

I love bacon- and yet... A friend recently posted a picture of pigs being fattened for bacon in Danemark, and it was so shocking it's put me off totally. 100s of pigs lying on their side in oblong narrow metal wire cages, several rows on top of each other - how can this still be possible in this day and age in Europe???

grandma2213, my feeling is that if a food is delicious in a non-sugary way, it must be good for me . There are good evolutionary reasons we like high fat foods I'm talking about easy to obtain high fat foods of course, like meat and other animal products; vegetable fats may be good too but in an evolutionary sense they were much harder to obtain in any quantity.

There are also, of course, good evolutionary reasons why sweet foods are so attractive to our taste buds. The trouble now is that sweetness is too easy. Historically, it was much rarer in the human diet.

Anyway, enough blether. I'm having a bacon butty for lunch on my gorgeous homemade bread. ??

I've been a vegetarian for over thirty years.

As far as I know I have suffered no ill effects whatsoever. I eat eggs, cheese and quorn products for protein.

I would like to be a vegan really but that's just too complicated.

All this talk of bacon (the vegetarian's downfall ...) reminds me of my first ever foray into on-line shopping, way back in the nineties... I bought green back bacon from Jack Scaife - then a family concern, long since sold to a larger corporation.

Jack's daughters worked in the family firm, and had persuaded him to let them set up on-line trading. Oh the trepidation as I typed in my card number... but the stuff arrived, was beautiful, and now that I can't get about anyway, I am happy to order everything I want or need from on-line suppliers. Except, oddly, bacon - which I can get from a local Farm Butcher - as we come full circle!

We have a good local butcher and buy bacon in large packs. It is beautifully cured and doesn't shrink in the pan - and works out very favourably compared to supermarket prices.

Bacon butty with cheap bacon grilled to a crisp and fried runny egg, an absolute joy as a treat. Tastes so good it must be bad.

ethelbags. Enjoy.

Bacon and processed meat does not cause cancer, it can cause it if eaten in excess, although most bacon eaters will not get cancer by so doing. Water can also be a killer also if consumed to excess. Would you cut water out of you diet in case you consumed an excess of it?

Eat a good mixed and varied diet with a high proportion of plant based food and the occasional cooked breakfast or bacon butty will do you know harm whatsoever.

Bacon and other processed meat causes cancer, its in all the papers and TV. Beware.
I wont eat such stuff again. Free range chicken or fish for me from now on.

We like casseroles and stews. Still make them, but add lots of vegetables to them. A casserole with 1 lb of meat will now provide 3 or 4 meals for two, reducing our meat intake but not the good meaty flavour and pleasure of a good long cooked casserole.

since a friend's son did his Masters degree on fishfarming and explained in hideous detail about the antibiotics, lice etc etc, we hardly ever eat salmon. But we are lucky to have a fab visiting fishmonger once a week. So for 2016 its more fish (not farmed), less red meat and all meat ethically produced and luckily my vegetable garden is a constant source of goodies even at this time of year (tho diggin things up in this mud is no picnic). Dry January is still working, but I might relax at weekends.

I'm another who agrees with whitewave about 3 days vegi, couple of days fish and maybe 2 with meat.
I'm also careful about fish. I read that farmed salmon eats its own weight in antibiotic before it lands on our tables. I only buy red free range (is that the right word) salmon, never that awful pink slimy looking stuff that's been farmed. I'm also very careful about farmed sea bass, for the same reason. the fish are crammed together, covered in sea lice and fed all manner of chemicals as a result.
I was chatting to our vet about this, he's from the Highlands and still fishes for salmon there. He talked about diminishing stock and the impact of escapees from the farms. He said he believes farmed salmon is probably one of the worst foods we could possibly eat (he evidently eats a lot of meat)

We do buy prepacked bacon, but not now, I will take up your suggestion of free range, organic. There is an independent butcher locally I will try him. Thanks all.

If everyone went veggie, would the only cows, sheep and pigs be kept as pets...or in zoos?