I have two kids, a boy aged 6 and a girl aged 8. They currently eat the usual sugary breakfast cereal every morning.
I typically cook an omelette for myself every morning. It made me wonder if I shouldn't just do the same for the kids instead of the cereal.
So I'm thinking eggs and bacon every morning. We'll see if they go for it, but I'm wondering if there's anything I should be concerned about or look out for with this?
The sugary breakfast cereal, while less than ideal, is likely fortified with vitamins and possibly contains a good amount of fiber. The eggs and bacon, on the other hand, are high in protein and have little else in their favor -- and a lot against them. Both are high in fat and the bacon is likely high in sodium and (depending on how it was produced) has nitrates that are absolutely terrible for anybody, let alone children.
I generally feed my own children (four-year-old twin boys) plenty of fresh fruit and vegetarian sausage patties for breakfast, but I'm no health-food zealot -- we do have bacon almost every weekend, though it's a special treat and not a staple of their diet. We also make it a point to splurge on the more expensive, nitrate-free kind, which isn't a huge deal since we're not eating it every day. I also think it tastes much better than the regular supermarket bacon, as well.
In my opinion, you should feed your children at least an egg a day and you will be doing them a HUGE nutritive favor. Occasionally serving nitrate-free bacon will do no harm.
I say this because of scientific research. There is huge debate in the scientific and research communities about the role of fats in health, the role of cholesterol in heart disease and other ailments, and the relative value of dense carbohydrate consumption compared to other nutrients.
One person posted a link on About.com that suggests limiting yolks to 4 per week, but hard research tells a different story:
... no relationship between egg intake and coronary heart disease incidence was found. It is concluded that within the range of egg intake of this population differences in egg consumption were unrelated to blood cholesterol level or to coronary heart disease incidence.
I don't know the range of egg intake, but in 912 people you can bet some were avid egg eaters. Even if no one ate more than 4 eggs, there was no difference found at all, so where is the boundary edge where those bad-for-you eggs start to have any deleterious effect at all?
Very respected researchers are avidly speaking out against the idea that cholesterol causes disease. Cholesterol, Friend or Foe says:
In conclusion, cholesterol is one of the most important substances in the body. We cannot live without it, let alone function well. The pernicious diet-heart hypothesis has vilified this essential substance. Unfortunately, this hypothesis has served many commercial and political interests far too well, so they ensure its long survival. However, the life of the diet-heart hypothesis is coming to an end as we become aware that cholesterol has been mistakenly blamed for the crime just because it was found at the scene.
For some understanding of why "it is found at the scene:"
Our stress hormones are made out of cholesterol in the body. Stressful situations increase our blood cholesterol levels because cholesterol is being sent to the adrenal glands for stress hormone production. Apart from that, when we are under stress, a storm of free radicals and other damaging biochemical reactions occur in the blood. So the liver works hard to produce and send out as much cholesterol as possible to deal with the free radical attack. In situations like this, your blood cholesterol will test high. In short, when we have a high blood cholesterol level, it means that the body is dealing with some kind of damage. The last thing we should do is interfere with this process! When the damage has been dealt with, the blood cholesterol will naturally go down. If we have an ongoing disease in the body that constantly inflicts damage, then the blood cholesterol will be permanently high. So, when a doctor finds high cholesterol in a patient, what this doctor should do is to look for the reason. The doctor should ask, "What is damaging the body so that the liver has to produce all that cholesterol to deal with the damage?" Unfortunately, instead of this sensible procedure, our doctors are trained to attack the cholesterol.
The research I've done has led me to believe that eggs are good for you and that they are more full of nutrients than any fortified breakfast cereal. Fat in and of itself is not bad for you (though when rancid, oxidized or when containing bonds in the trans configuration instead of cis it surely is). While it has more calories per gram, it is also more satiating.
The nitrates or other preservatives in bacon certainly do speak out against its common use. There are uncured bacons available in some grocery stores (don't be fooled by "no nitrates except for those naturally occurring in celery powder and sea salt", as that's just a dishonest and sneaky way to get nitrates in the bacon under another name and deceive you, the consumer—manufacturers feed the celery nitrate water, then extract the nitrates back out, and they extract nitrates from seawater, so it's no different). But the fat in bacon is not inherently bad for you. Want to know more? Read The Skinny on Fats. You might also be interested in The Oiling of America.
Also, what the pigs you're eating are fed can make a big difference. Pigs raised on a traditional small-scale farm where they are given nutritious, non-toxic vegetarian foods are going to be a lot more supportive of your body's health than other alternatives. Pigs can eat all sorts of good food scraps from a farm (almost like a replacement compost pile). It's okay to feed them excess cow milk (from healthy cows) if it's also a dairy farm. If the pigs are raised on commercial feed-lots with too many animals in the same space, all indoors, on antibiotics, fed commercial, processed feed full of soy and other toxins, well, that meat is not going to be as good for you.
Folks, the lipid hypothesis—that consumption of fats and cholesterol raise cholesterol levels and that these both cause heart and other disease—while still the party line of the medical establishment, is under serious fire from many researchers out there.
First and foremost, you'll want to be sure that one or both of your children aren't allergic to eggs. Chances are you'd know already, but just in case you aren't sure it might be good to find out first.
Second, eggs and bacon are about as good for your kids as they are for you... in other words, consider using an egg substitute (or mixture of whole eggs and egg whites), and perhaps turkey bacon rather than full-fat pork bacon, to stay on the healthier side of the nutritional spectrum.
Other than those two points, I see no reason not to cook a nice hot meal for your kids. It will definitely keep them fuller for longer than those sugar-laden cereals will.
Instead of the bacon we use slices of ham or turkey depending on which brand has less sodium in it.
For every meal we use the following rule of thumb
Protein, fruit or veggies, carbs, dairy
This meal wouldn't take that much longer for you to make and it would be a good solid healthy meal for the whole family.
Remember also that there are no foods that cannot be eaten at breakfast. Culture alone - not health or nutrition - has dictated certain foods more accepted at breakfast. "Breaking the rules" or "eating outside expectations" may be appealing to your children and increase interest and acceptance while it broadens the possibility of nutritional options.
Lots of answers, for some reason no one has pointed out that eating the same thing of anything every single day is not a very good strategy!
It's putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak.
We know that bacon increases the risk of some cancers according to the World Health Organisation. On our current knowledge, I can't think of many worse things to eat every day!
However, we ourselves do eat eggs most days. I think they're amazing things.
But the other reason this is a bad idea is that it's going to make your kids inflexible. What about when you're travelling, on holiday, ill, can't get to the shop?
I think bacon and eggs is a good breakfast item, but you should have them eat a variety of foods for breakfast. In the long term, if you eat too many pieces of bacon and/or fried eggs, it won't be healthy, as both are high in fat, and the bacon may contain chemicals. They hold a lot of protein, so that is a good thing, but your children may also tire of eating it if they have it every day. A variety of breakfast foods is the best.
According to this page even adults should not eat more than 4 yolks per week because of high amount of cholesterol.
Other breakfast alternatives could be granola, less sugary cereal or hot cereal (oatmeal and farina). You can add fruits and a little bit of sugar to oatmeal to make it tasty.
I'm not normally one to advocate the subject much but according to recent studies and trends one might consider that neither are "good" for you. Here's just one article about the health studies between plant based and carnivorous diets.
This is an interesting conference where a nutritionist explained the latest discoveries in meat composition that was connected to rigor mortis and the human body's inability to process a certain property, which was linked to heart disease, diabetes, and other common health ailments afflicting the majority of the US.
However, from a parental perspective, my kids are pretty picky. We try to raise them on all organic, home prepared foods, but obviously that can be impossible unless you pretty much live in a cave. Through any number of influences our kids end up wanting certain foods, candies, treats, etc and they're kids so they should have a good time and if they later choose to go all organic and vegan then good for them. If not, it's their lives so they can choose that too.
They have nitrate free turkey bacon. Tastes pretty good. You can get it at any Super Target. Some will argue the nitrates in celery juice are basically the same thing as added nitrates. Not sure but from a general health standpoint the consensus is still that turkey bacon is less harmful than pork or beef.
Organic cage free eggs are available, and if you're a member of Costco they're pretty much no more expensive than normal eggs.
From a health and protein intake perspective you are probably doing well to feed your kids an egg and some bacon several times a week to facilitate the proteins and fats they may otherwise not be getting. Argumentatively you can also achieve the same levels from a hand full of nuts and some easily kid prepared beans and rice based burritos. But I know that can be a challenge.
Something you may think about - It's a personal challenge for any parent to overcome the wiles of child food related insanity. Should you manage to interest them in omelettes, burritos, smoothies, etc. Consider that a huge amount of the daily nutrient profile can be achieved with a very small amount of vegetable super foods, like broccoli, kale, nuts, etc. I mean indistinguishable levels. You can puree kale and broccoli down to micro bits and mix them into an omelette. By that point you could probably give them a cup of kool aid and doritos and they would still have absorbed more vitamins than most kids get in a whole day. (not advising to do that, but just saying...)
We've been working hard to overcome our kid's food related chaos. We achieve a high nutrition intake from clever use of common foods, and occasionally battle their cuteness winning us over and getting them a mcdonald's cheeseburger, which probably undoes most of our hard work. But it keeps them sane, and they largely welcome our ventures into super foods disguised as tasty kid foods.
To summarize though - residing back to your question - yeah, there are serious health implications coupling the decision to eat bacon and eggs daily. Highly provable medical concerns even, but they revolve around the entire agricultural industry and not specifically meat or animal products. The optimal decision would be as close to plant based as possible.
I would cite more links, but any google search on vegan diets will give you the information to support this. The lecture I referred to had some disheartening information (especially since I love me some chicken, which they identify as WORSE for you than beef!) but it is a pretty interesting video and it's changing how I feel I will plan meals for my kids.
The sodium nitrate found in bacon is also found in high amounts in many vegetables. Bacon is fine in the modest quantities people normally have. Eggs are great. You don't need fiber unless you love to fart a lot and do giant poos.
