Which tastes better regular bacon or turkey bacon?

Regular

8 of 13

by Liane Laskoske

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I miss real bacon. I miss the crumbly crunch of the first bite right down to the last of the greasy goodness licked from my fingers.

Ever since my husband had a heart attack, he gave up nearly all of his bad habits, and that included cooking a half pound of bacon for our breakfasts. As a substitute for real pork bacon, he discovered turkey bacon, or what we call "fakon". That would make a great brand name for the product, wouldn't it?

Though turkey jerky is a great substitute for beef jerky, and I have eaten and enjoyed both, the same is not true for bacon. Turkey bacon just does not crumble the same way. Turkey bacon has a slightly chewy texture not found in the real thing. It is more like a thin piece of jerky. Real bacon, when cooked right, is delicate and fragile, breaking or crumbling with more than the lightest touch, leaving those tasty morsels on the plate just waiting for a fingertip to poke them up to be licked off. Turkey bacon, as I said, being more like a thin piece of jerky, bends rather than snaps, and requires a harder bite to get a chunk to break off. The taste is slightly like bacon only because it is smoked and cured the same way.

Because our switch to turkey bacon, or fakon, was due to my husband's health issues, we have to consider the benefits of that switch. Fat content is not the only concern. Sodium, which is essential to the curing process, can be higher in subsitutes than in the real thing.

Real pork bacon has 251 calories per serving with 28g fat, 8mg sodium, and 27mg cholesterol.

Turkey bacon has less fat and less cholesterol. Louis Rich Brand Turkey Bacon has 35 calories per serving with 2.8g fat, 170mg sodium, and 13mg cholesterol.

If you need to cut out more fat, or even go one step farther and cut out meat products, LightLife makes a 45 calorie soy fakon which has 2g fat, 340mg sodium, and no cholesterol, It should be noted that extra sodium for taste is added, presumably to make up for the lack of taste from fat. The vegan version also assuages any guilt from eating animal byproducts, though I really have no qualms about eating something found in a supermarket.

All in all, if due to health reasons you must switch to turkey bacon, or even soy bacon, you have to weigh the risks against the momentary pleasure. You must decide if the savory goodness of the real bacon is worth your health if you are prone to heart disease or cholesterol problems. Being the wife of such a person, I would feel slightly guilty eating real bacon in front of him. So I eat it when he's not around.

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