Nutritious, cognitively beneficial, environmentally friendly, and just downright delicious. Bacon has become a staple in the American diet to the tune of FIVE BILLION DOLLARS! Seems like everywhere you look, bacon has become a sought-after option. It has been popular for decades at burger joints like River City Cafe, now it is starting to pop up at seafood restaurants and yes, especially at Ultimate California Pizza. For our blog this month, we dive into bacon.

Regardless of the food trends, bacon manages to always overcome and come out on top. As an ingredient or highlighted as an essential part of the main item, it is here to stay and we are ok with that. Here are a few reasons why we believe it has become a crowd-pleaser.

Bacon is nutritious. Overall, bacon is a hearty and nutritious food packed with vitamins and nutrients. Bacon contains Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and B12. It boasts 37 grams of high-quality animal proteins, 89% of the recommended dietary allowance for selenium, which plays a vital role in metabolism and thyroid function, and 53% of the recommended dietary allowance for phosphorus, a component of bones, teeth, DNA, and RNA. Bacon also contains many other minerals like iron, magnesium zinc, and potassium.

Bacon has been around for thousands of years! Even though it carries a German-ish name, it first appeared in China. Food historians place the first reference of salted pork belly in China around 1500 B.C. It’s a good thing for all of us that it was shared around the world.

One of the best perks of bacon is the relatively low-calorie count for meat. A single serving of bacon boasts 7.5 grams of protein with 120 calories. A 12 ounce can of popular cola contains ZERO grams of protein and 150 calories. Health fact #293: Bacon is better than Soda!

On top of being healthier than soda, there is some bacon research that suggests it is key to healthy brain development in unborn babies. Choline, a macronutrient responsible for that development is found in bacon.

Americans make a serious effort to get enough choline. In addition to Americans spending $5 billion a year on bacon, it is also estimated that each American consumes 18 pounds of bacon annually. In case you were wondering, that’s a lot of bacon! On the plus side, bacon is more environmentally friendly than beef. Pigs have a much smaller carbon footprint and require 28 times less land and 11 times less water.

At Ultimate California Pizza, we utilize bacon as an ingredient in several of our offerings. You can find bacon on these items at any of our four locations:

  1. Sonoma Valley Spinach Salad.
  2. Polynesian Sandwich
  3. The Club Sandwich
  4. Hollywood “Meat Lovers”
  5. Pasadena
  6. Pomona
  7. San Diego
  8. Fresno
  9. The River Dale
  10. Big Surf
  11. Beef & Bacon
  12. And of course, bacon is always an option on our Build Your Own Pizza menu or you could add it to any other pizza that does not already feature bacon.

Want to see what each of these items features? Check out our online menu.

As you can see, we are riding the bacon wave just like the rest of the country. It is easy to hop on board when bacon tastes so good!