{"id":34996,"date":"2021-07-13T15:33:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T19:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=34996"},"modified":"2021-09-12T12:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T16:48:47","slug":"interesting-facts-about-bacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=34996","title":{"rendered":"Interesting facts about Bacon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good day all. I was wondering around aimlessly in the wastelands of the Interweb tubes when I came across this article from the Foundation for Economic Education<\/a>. They posted 15 interesting facts about bacon. I am now shamelessly stealing it and reposting it with some commentary. Why am I doing this you ask?<\/p>\n

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Did you know that Americans spend $5 BILLION dollars on bacon annually? It\u2019s true. According to the Fee article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

America is currently in the midst of a decades-long trend of \u201cbacon mania<\/a>.\u201d In 2018, bacon accounted for $4.9 billion in US sales, up from $4.7 billion the previous year and an increase of more than<\/a> 20 percent from 2012. <\/b><\/p>\n

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Also, research indicates that eating bacon improves the brain, and makes you smart.<\/p>\n

Most health research focuses on bacon\u2019s negative impact. (So typical, right?) However, some research shows positive health outcomes associated with bacon consumption. A University of North Carolina study<\/a>, for example, found that choline, a micronutrient in bacon, is key to healthy brain development in unborn babies. You got that, moms? You have an excuse to eat bacon. <\/b><\/p>\n

So, all you soon to be new moms? EAT BACON!! It\u2019s for the children after all.<\/p>\n

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Recently, a lot has been made about how you should go vegan to \u201cSave the planet! Well, it looks like bacon is actually environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n

Americans don\u2019t appear to need more reasons to eat bacon (beyond its deliciousness), but they might have some. Turns out bacon and pork have a <\/b>much <\/b><\/em>smaller carbon footprint than beef. One recent study<\/a>, for example, concluded that growing beef requires 28 times more land and 11 times more water than bacon and pork (as well as other foods such as eggs and chicken). <\/b><\/p>\n

The reason for this is simple. Pigs will eat pretty much anything. Vegetables, fruits, grains, the dead bodies of your enemies<\/i><\/span> and meat. I wonder of Greta Thunderbrain likes bacon?<\/p>\n

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Now a good slab of bacon can run $4-$9 a pound, but if you figure inflation into the equation, bacon is actually far cheaper today then it was a century ago.<\/p>\n

In 2014, <\/b>Fox News<\/b><\/em> reported<\/a> that bacon prices hit \u201ca new all-time high\u201d after reaching \u201ca whopping $6.11 per pound.\u201d As bacon lovers worldwide already knew, the price, which soon fell when consumers and producers adjusted, <\/b>was <\/b><\/em>abnormally high\u2014up 40 percent from just two years before. However, bacon wasn\u2019t really more expensive than ever. <\/b><\/p>\n

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As Marian Tupy has shown<\/a>, the price of bacon, when adjusting for wages and inflation, is about 86 percent less today than it was 100 years ago. (Think about this next time you\u2019re at the grocery store selecting a package of delicious bacon, and give thanks to your free-market economy.) If <\/b>Fox News<\/b><\/em> had used real prices instead of nominal prices<\/a>, they would have found that those \u201call-time high\u201d prices were still a fraction of the real cost of bacon in, say, 1919, when the nominal price was $0.53 a pound and average nominal wages were $0.25 an hour.<\/b><\/p>\n

So bacon cost people the equivalent of over 2 hours of work. Today, depending on variables, you\u2019re probably looking at about 15 minutes per pound of bacon. Definitely prices have come down. Of course, I wonder what the cost was back when the Chinese invented bacon? The Chinese? Invented bacon? It seems so.<\/p>\n

Americans may love their bacon, but the savory snack predates the discovery of the New World by thousands of years. Food historians say<\/a> salted pork belly first appeared in China around 1500 BC. <\/b><\/p>\n

I mentioned this interesting fact to She Who Must Be Obeyed, since she is Chinese. She thought it was hilarious, then started working on some pork. While she does love her pork and she does eat quite a bit, Americans tend to eat far more bacon.<\/p>\n

A typical American consumes 18 pounds of bacon each year. That weight is slightly less than your average car tire.<\/b><\/p>\n

I suspect that number is a bit on the low side actually. Perhaps slightly less then the average truck tire perhaps? It\u2019s certainly far more nutritious then a tire.<\/p>\n

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Bacon is high in saturated fat and contains additives such as nitrates and nitrites that cause concern among scientists who fear it could be linked<\/a> to gastric cancer (more on that later). However, overall bacon is a hearty and nutritious food packed with essential vitamins and nutrients. As <\/b>Healthline <\/b><\/em>points out<\/a>, bacon contains:<\/b><\/p>\n