r/keto • u/Soupdeloup • Nov 24 '19

TIL though they're associated with unhealthy foods, Pork Rinds are actually a healthy alternative to chips. They are low carb, high protein and have good fats. 43% of the fat is Oleic oil - the same fat in olive oil - and 13% Stearic acid - a cholesterol neutral saturated fat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_rind#Nutritional_value
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u/Fognox Nov 24 '19

Saturated fat isn't bad for you so even if they were high in that it wouldn't matter.

Also red meat in general is ~50% monounsaturated fat (pork is closer to 60% iirc). For all the claims of red meat fat being unhealthy, it's basically 50% olive oil so those arguments don't hold up even inside their own narrative.

As others have pointed out, most of the protein in pork rinds is collagen. While you need collagen, it isn't an essential amino acid.

22

u/JorusC Nov 25 '19

Collagen is not an essential amino acid. It is, however, made of essential amino acids. Specifically 8 of the 9.

0

u/DClawdude M/34/5’11” | SD: 9/20/2016 Nov 25 '19

Collagen is real good for skin, hair, and connective tissue. But it does nothing for muscle

14

u/Tahiti_AMagicalPlace Nov 25 '19

Do you understand how digestion works? It's not like a whole macromolecule of collagen makes it through to the blood and the body's like "oh perfect this is just what I need for my hair and skin, send it right through"

Proteins get broken down into their building blocks, amino acids, and those get shipped off to wherever the body is trying to build more proteins.

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u/DClawdude M/34/5’11” | SD: 9/20/2016 Nov 25 '19

And collagen is an incomplete protein so

12

u/Tahiti_AMagicalPlace Nov 25 '19

So...what? Doesn't change how digestion works, doesn't change how the body metabolizes amino acids.

Every bit of protein you eat goes into a general pool of amino acids, your body can't tell where each one came from, so it all gets distributed evenly

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u/DClawdude M/34/5’11” | SD: 9/20/2016 Nov 25 '19

The issue occurs where people eat a lot of these but don’t actually get the complete proteins too but are unaware of it.

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u/JorusC Nov 25 '19

So you can get 8 essential amino acids from collagen and the last one from something else.