What happens if you eat bacon every day?

Do you like bacon? Who doesn’t? While some say bacon is bad for your health, others would claim it has several benefits. What should we believe? Who should we listen to? Do we keep eating bacon, or stop altogether? In today’s article, we will be talking about what happens to your body when you eat bacon every day. Is it healthy? Unhealthy? Or a mix of both? Will you get cancer? What about heart diseases and hypertension? We’ll be talking about all of these or more.

Here's What Happens To Your Body When You Eat Bacon Every Day

1. You’ll get both healthy and unhealthy fats

Craving a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich? It makes my mouth water. But let’s settle the talk about fats first. Do you get unhealthy fat from bacon? What about healthy fats? The answer is both!

Bacon has both unsaturated and saturated fats. 50% of bacon is made of monounsaturated fats and 10% is polyunsaturated. I don’t want to confuse you with these complex names.

But it’s important you know them. Both types are great for your body. They actually help bring down your blood cholesterol levels. This in turn helps reduce the risk of a heart attack.

But bacon has saturated fats as well. They make up for 40% of bacon. In small quantities, saturated fats aren’t too bad. Be careful not to eat too much bacon daily. It can harm your health in the long run because of the presence of saturated fats.

2. You’ll get heart disease

We often hear red meat is bad for your heart. Bacon is red meat. So certainly, the risks plaguing red meat also apply to bacon. But what makes it unhealthy for your heart? The answer lies in saturated fat found in bacon.

Saturated fat tends to deposit your arteries causing plaque build-up. With time, your arteries harden and the blockage reaches astounding levels. If you don’t get medical attention, you might have a heart attack.

Saturated fat in bacon forms plaque in your blood vessels and arteries, which gives you heart disease. Plaque in arteries runs a special risk, as they carry oxygen to your heart.

Now you get the picture? Eating bacon every day can be a health hazard because of plaque formation. If this plaque breaks off, it can form a blood clot. And blood clots are extremely dangerous because they can reach vital organs like the lungs, brain, and heart.

They can even cause a brain hemorrhage. If you let plaque continue, it will cut off blood supply to your heart. But this doesn’t mean you can’t eat bacon. Just be careful of your portion size. According to experts, limiting yourself to one bacon serving a day is okay.

3. You might experience gut imbalance

Have you ever felt uneasy after eating bacon? Like your digestive system’s upset with you? Turns out bacon can give you a gut imbalance. Wondering how? Bacon comes with a lot of greases. Eating greasy foods high in saturated fats can cause an imbalance in your gut microbiome. An imbalanced gut will damage your stomach lining.

Balance fats you get from bacon with healthier ones. For instance, eat more fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel. They have omega-3 fatty acids. Avocados are great too. They’re super rich in healthy fats.

4. You get tons of vitamins

While the focus tends to be on the fats it contains, bacon also comes packed with lots of important nutrients. It’s especially rich in vitamins, including B6 and B12. Bacon also has iron, zinc, and magnesium. All these vitamins, especially vitamin B12, are very important for your body.

Vegetarians often lack B12 since you usually get it from animal-based foods. Whatever you do, just remember it’s important to balance the need for vitamins. There are other leafy vegetables and healthier B12 sources you can consider to balance your diet.

5. You can get cancer

Bacon is processed meat, which falls under Group One carcinogens. Wondering what those are? A carcinogen is a term for things that can cause cancer. Processed meat has a greater risk of giving you cancer, specifically colorectal cancer. Eating even 2 to 3 bacon slices a day increases your chances of bowel cancer.

Don’t worry. It’s not just processed foods that will give you cancer. It also depends upon the rest of your lifestyle.

Maybe you stick to a balanced diet, along with the bacon you’re eating on a daily basis. Exercise daily and have a healthy sleep schedule.

6. Eating it regularly can lead to diabetes

There are nearly 33 million Americans who suffer from type-2 diabetes. Diabetes is called the silent killer. This chronic illness affects various parts of your body. It can even cause vision loss and kidney failure. If you’re eating bacon regularly, you’re at a higher risk of getting diabetes.

Research has shown that processed meats like bacon increase your risk of diabetes. Unfortunately, it’s still not clear why this happens. People with a healthy lifestyle can avoid these health effects.

7. Bacon fights depression and anxiety

Don’t we all feel happy after bacon? Turns out, it isn’t just the taste that wins your heart. There are physiological reasons behind bacon making you happier after meals. This is because bacon contains zinc and magnesium. Depression and anxiety are closely linked to zinc and magnesium deficiency.

The research found that 250 milligrams of magnesium daily for six weeks helped depression. The same is true for zinc. Experts analyzed more than 15 studies to find the correlation between zinc and depression.

It was reported that lower levels of zinc are linked to higher instances of depression. Your body needs a lot of zinc for a variety of functions, including keeping your brain healthy. It also regulates nerve paths.

When it comes to getting the benefits of zinc and magnesium, bacon is on par with what fish offers. In fact, a 3.5-ounce serving of bacon provides 23% of your zinc needs whereas the same amount of salmon gives you only 3%. But before you go all out on bacon remember the unhealthy fats. Moderation is the key, my friend.

8. Eating bacon every day can be bad for your mental health

It’s true, bacon does have nutrients that help with depression. But there’s also worry that too much bacon can actually be harmful to people with psychiatric issues.

Research shows that eating processed foods, like bacon and salami is detrimental to your mental health.

9. You’ll have a stronger immune system

Magnesium ensures there’s no replication of cells, which reduces your risk of cancer. Zinc, on the other hand, helps heal wounds faster. It also regulates your immune system from overreacting.

10. You can get high blood pressure

One of the downsides to bacon is that it has huge amounts of sodium. Too much sodium leads to health problems like high blood pressure and hypertension. If you’re already suffering from hypertension, you need to stay away from bacon.

Experts recommend Americans limit the amount of sodium they eat to less than 2300 mg a day. A 3.5 ounce serving of bacon comes with 1030 mg of sodium. That’s a bit too much for me.

11. Should I eat bacon or avoid it?

I get how difficult it is to stay off the bacon. It’s delicious. So is there a way to keep eating bacon without harming your health? Most of the downsides that come with eating bacon are due to nitrates.

This is usually because of the preservatives that are added to processed food. That being said, if the bacon you’re eating has additional additives that provide Vitamin C and E, they’ll prevent the negative effects of these nitrites.

Glad we sorted bacon out for you. But it’s just one food. There’s confusion around other foods as well.