Cutting out meat from your diet is one of the most important things you can do to be more eco-friendly. You regularly hear about beef being so bad for you and the environment, but what about bacon? Apologies to all the bacon lovers out there – since it’s considered a red meat and a processed meat, bacon is bad for your health. Research has found that eating one daily portion of bacon can increase your risk of sudden death by up to 20 percent. Plus, processed meat is bad for the environment, with nitrates released from bacon leading to water pollution.
Bacon of the Sea
There’s a safer, more eco-friendly alternative to bacon that pretty much tastes like the real thing: seaweed. No, really. Researchers from Oregon State University in the U.S. have found a strain of seaweed called dulse which not only tastes like bacon but is sustainable and even looks a bit like bacon with its reddish-brown colour. So far the researchers have already been testing dulse flavour in a variety of foods, such as salad dressing and crackers, and they found that when it gets fried then its bacon flavour can really be enjoyed.
Is Dulse the Latest Superfood?
Dulse is not just a great alternative for bacon lovers, though. It’s also ready to give kale a run for its money as its filled with nutrients such as magnesium, protein, and iron – with nutrient value that’s twice more than what you will find in kale. What can make it even more popular as a superfood is that it grows really quickly and doesn’t place a large impact on the ocean’s resources to do so. The researchers found that they’d only require a 20-by-20 square mile of the ocean to grow dulse.
Who knows? Perhaps soon ‘dulse and eggs’ will be the morning mantra at many breakfast tables.
Image credit: Leah-Anne Thompson / Dollar Photo Club
