Today is National Bacon Lovers Day

BLT Sandwich

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Today is National Bacon Lovers Day

August 20, 2021

August 20th is National Bacon Lovers Day! Vegetarians and vegans beware – it’s time to get crispy kids! If you believe pork fat rules, THIS is the holiday for you…and it’s not the only day of course – because EVERYTHING is better with bacon! There are a number of celebration days for this beloved meat.

  • March 3rd is National Canadian Bacon Day
  • April 19th is National Bacon Soup Day
  • The Saturday before Labor Day (this year, that’s August 31st) is International Bacon Day.
  • Later in December – on the 30th – it’s Bacon Day.

But this day? It’s for the lovers. And there are reasons we do love the stuff…and it ain’t a new thing. Bacon is one of the oldest processed meats in history – the Chinese began salting pork bellies as early as 1500 B.C. – as the salt preserved the meat so it could be eaten all year. In the modern day, more than half of all homes (53%) keep bacon on hand at all times. That makes sense considering 1.7-billion-pounds of bacon are consumed every year in America. So GO GET YOUR BACON BACON!

In Case You Were Curious…About Bacon!

August 20, 2021

  • Americans spend more than $4-billion annually on bacon.
  • During World War II, Americans were urged to save bacon fat so it could be used in the manufacture of bombs. (It was used to make glycerol, an ingredient in explosives.)
  • If you’re average, you’ll eat 18-pounds of bacon this year.
  • Three bacon products you can’t eat: Bacon-Scented Bath & Shower Soap; Bacon Strips Adhesive Bandages (Band-Aids that look like strips of bacon); and the Bacon Surfing Cat Clock (a clock with a picture of a cat surfing on a piece of bacon…in space).
  • Kevin Bacon’s favorite sandwich is the BLAST—bacon, lettuce, avocado, smoked salmon, and tomato. (He claims he invented it…no judgment, it sounds delish)
  • Bacon has been called the food most likely to convince vegetarians to eat meat. That makes sense considering scientists say that bacon has a compound that produces a pleasing neurochemical response. Result: bacon is addictive.
  • U.S. bacon sales fell sharply in the 1980s because of a lean-meat craze. What turned it around? The bacon cheeseburger. The first one debuted at Hardee’s in 1992. Once it became clear that people were more willing to eat bacon when they went out, restaurants started adding it to everything…and started the modern bacon craze.
  • First recorded death by bacon: In 1543, an English servant named Elizabeth Browne was warming herself by a fire when she was crushed by four sides of uncooked bacon that had fallen from a hook.
  • Research is inconclusive, but here are three things bacon might do: cure hangovers (it has amino acids), improve a fetus’s brain development (it has choline), lower a man’s sperm count (like all processed meats).
  • In a recent poll, 43% of Canadians said they’d rather eat bacon than have sex. Sounds good, eh?

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