Is Expensive Bacon Worth It?

Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

Dr. Eric Berg

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The average commodity bacon at the grocery store is affordable, but is the more costly bacon worth it? Once a pig is weaned from its mother, it’s sent to a feedlot, weighing about 40 to 50 pounds. It will then live in a 7-square-foot area where it will be fattened to over 250 pounds in 3 to 4 months! Commercial pigs are fed GMO corn and soy. They’re also given drugs in the US, like ractopamine, to quickly increase muscle growth before slaughter. This drug is banned in 90 countries! Laws protect the privacy of these farms, so it’s difficult for the public to discover what truly occurs there. When bacon is processed, artificial smoke flavoring, salt, sugar, water, and MSG are typically added. This process is not generally used for high-quality bacon.Nitrates are chemicals that act as antibacterials and flavor enhancers. When exposed to high heat, however, they can turn into carcinogens. Singing Pastures is an excellent source of pasture-raised bacon. Pigs are rotated in small pastures to allow grass to regenerate. In Spain and Italy, pigs are often fed acorns. Pork is also cured to enhance flavor and quality.Pork is one of the best sources of vitamin B1. Pasture-raised pork contains vitamin D and trace minerals such as selenium and zinc. Lard is a healthy fat and, if it comes from a properly raised pig, is a great addition to cooking and baking. Overcooked bacon can create carcinogenic byproducts. Avoid this by cooking your bacon in the oven or air fryer. To counteract carcinogens, cook your bacon with olive oil, garlic, and onion. Avoid microwavable bacon! Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:Dr. Berg, age 60, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan, and is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Is expensive bacon really worth it?
0:02.0	It's really confusing when you're shopping at the store for bacon because there's all these different types,
0:06.0	all these different price points, from $3.39 to $5 to $9 to $12.
0:12.0	Or even in some cases, would you ever spend $283 for a pound of bacon?
0:18.0	Well, maybe you would if you understood the bacon from the pigs that I
0:22.1	actually raised on my amazing farm, which I'll get into the details a little bit later. When we're
0:27.3	talking about the quality of bacon, we have this commodity, extremely cheap bacon. This is what's in
0:31.8	most of the grocery stores. Yes, you have a little bit of protein. You have a lot of fat. When a pig
0:36.2	is born and weaned off its mother,
0:38.4	it's about 40 to 50 pounds, then sent to the feedlot. This new home that this pig is going to live in
0:44.6	has a square footage of about 7 to 7.2 square feet. That is the square footage of an average bathtub.
0:56.6	It's kind of like you living in a closet.
1:09.2	Now they're going to increase the weight of that pig to 250 to 300 pounds in three to four months.
1:12.4	And the question is, what are they feeding this poor animal?
1:19.3	30% of the feed is dent corn, which is GMO. That means it's genetically modified and it has traces of glyphosate. Of course, the other 70% is basically genetically modified corn and soy.
1:26.3	Also things like ractopamine. This is a drug that is
1:30.4	banned in 90 other countries, and this is a way to ramp up the muscle on this animal in the last
1:36.9	20 days of its life. And what's really fascinating about these factory farms is that they have
1:42.7	certain agricultural gag laws. There's laws against whistleblowers.
1:46.4	You can't really reveal what's happening inside some of these farms. Very few people know that that
1:52.4	bacon that they buy at the store for $3.33 comes from these factory farms. They don't really think
1:58.7	about it. They don't really know about it. I don't want to support that. I want to support the small farmer that's really doing it right, that really cares about
	...

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