More Bacon, Please

It was just announced that Americans are living longer than ever, with an average life expectancy of 78 years and two months.

That’s the word from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and the CDCP also reported that 36,000 fewer Americans died in 2009 than the year before.

So this is a pretty healthy country, right?

Well, it depends on WHO you’re talking about. There has to be a LOT of really healthy people out there eating right and exercising to offset the legions of people sitting in fast-food drive-through lanes and gorging themselves at all-you-can-eat buffets.

We hear it all the time: Americans, with our junk food addiction and high-stress lifestyles, are killing ourselves.
Many seem to revel in their disregard for healthy eating. One of the most obvious examples of that is the growing desire to put bacon on everything we eat – in otherwise-healthy salads, on burgers, wrapped around fish and even topping cupcakes.

Yes-cupcakes!

Check it out on the Internet: There’s several bacon cupcake recipes offered for those who want more salty protein on their sugar-covered pastries.

Cupcakes are not exactly a health food to begin with, but made so much less so by the addition of bacon strips inserted into the gooey frosting.

I haven’t had one yet, but, uh, suddenly my, uh, mouth is spontaneously starting to, uh, salivate…

Alright, I admit that I do love bacon and pork products. But like just about everything in Life, they should be enjoyed in moderation.

There’s no denying the increasing popularity of bacon in the early 21st century, a time when – given the warnings of the late 20th century – you might have expected the consumption of pig flesh to have been banned by now.

But no. There’s even a web site called baconfreak.com that caters to the “baconistas” of the world, who regard bacon as “meat candy.”

On the web site, you can order “gourmet bacon” and join a “bacon-of-the-month” club. They’re also hawking maple bacon coffee, bacon hot sauce, bacon jerky, bacon-inspired greeting cards and bacon brittle-peanut brittle with bits of bacon baked into it. Oh yes, and bacon chocolates and bacon-flavored lollipops.  

Su-weet!

It seems our food wisdom is constantly being turned on its head. There was a guy in Washington who went on a 60-day diet of eating nothing but potatoes to disprove that potatoes were basically an unhealthy “fat” food.

Chris Voigt lost 21 pounds on the diet and dropped his cholesterol level by 67 points, according to an Associated Press story.

It was a good thing it turned out that way, given that Voigt was head of the Washington State Potato Commission and potatoes are big business in that state.

And there’s a 2009 documentary film called “Fat Head” about a man who went on a 30-day all-fast-food diet and dropped 12 pounds and also lowered his cholesterol.

Are these healthy diets? Of course not, because they must be balanced with fruits and vegetables and regular exercise over the longer-term.

So here’s the key question: We Americans may be living longer than ever before, but how REALLY healthy is that 78-year-old?

My advice for that person: Avoid the bacon cupcakes.

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