Which Bacon Is Healthiest?

Why is bacon pink?

This is what most bacon makers as to their bacon to preserve and color the bacon – gives it that nice bright pink color. A lot of places are going the route now of using more natural options such as celery juice which has naturally occurring nitrates. Some people believe that nitrates are cancer causing.

Well not quite. Bacon is never going to win any awards as a health food. Sorry it’s never going to be considered a “superfood” as much as you would like it. But we can make bacon choices that will be “healthier” for our bodies and “tastier” for our tongues.

That is certainly up to debate. Turkey bacon will never have the same crispiness as bacon made with pork – it just won’t. I am someone who doesn’t mind bacon not being super crisp, in fact I like it just before it really crisp. While it will never be the same thing it still isn’t bad along side a stack of pancakes.

Buy local if you can. Oscar Mayer now offers bacon that does not contain any added nitrates or nitries except for those occurring in celery juice. 1. Buy uncured bacon. The first thing I want to look for when trying to eat healthier bacon is to buy uncured bacon.

What is bacon made of?

American bacon is made from pork belly. You may see it called “streaky bacon” in other countries, because it has more fat stripes than, say, British bacon. The first step to making bacon is to cure it with a mix of salt, sugar, and seasonings.

The FDA says sodium intake should be 2300 mg/day or less. Some bacon brands contain up to 20 percent of your daily value of sodium in just two slices. Thick cut vs thin cut. Thick cut means more bacon in fewer slices. That means more sodium, more fat, more calories.

At 110 calories for two slices, be mindful of how much you’re consuming (four slices in a sandwich is 220 calories in bacon alone). The Hormel bacon contains sodium nitrite but also sodium erythorbate, which is a cure accelerator and stimulates color development in cured meat. Not ideal. 2.

You’ll find sodium phosphates (retain moisture), sodium erythrobate (color and curing accelerator), and sodium nitrite on the list.

The USDA requires sodium ascorbate to be added to bacon if it was “pumped“, in order to reduce the amount of free nitrate in the product (and reduce the resulting amount of nitrosamines).

Brands that cut corners will inject bacon with this blend in a process called “pumping”, which cuts down on the production time. Once curing is complete, it’s onto smoking.

They use vegetarian feed and hand-inspect each animal to ensure ideal weight and size. After processing, the bacon is dry-cured for six days and smoked for 12 hours over applewood chips.