Why do Americans eat bacon and eggs? (2023)

Why do Americans eat bacon and eggs?

In the 1920s, Americans ate very light breakfasts, so public relations pioneer Edward Bernays persuaded doctors to promote bacon and eggs as a healthy breakfast in order to promote sales of bacon on behalf of Beech-Nut, a packaging company that had diversified into food production.

Eggs are high in protein, which helps build and maintain muscle tissue. According to researchers at Tufts University, a diet that includes a breakfast of bacon and eggs and lean sources of protein at lunch and dinner can help prevent the loss of muscle tissue, especially in older people.

Workers needed protein and fat— slow-metabolizing energy sources—to get them through the day, and eggs provided a cheaper alternative to meat. The need for a filling breakfast meant that eggs would serve as breakfast's primary protein—uniting workers of the world.

Bacon and eggs is the classic American breakfast. Add some potatoes and toast and you've got a quintessential morning meal nearly everyone favors. Bacon has been a staple in our diet since the days of the Pilgrims.

"People like bacon because, first of all, it's fun. It is umami. It's that salty, fatty, satisfying, comforting happy place.

Bacon and eggs as a morning staple is a relatively modern convention, only dating back to the 1920s. As with so many American customs it is simply the result of a compelling marketing scheme.

In the United States, breakfast often consists of either a cereal or an egg-based dish. However, pancakes, waffles, toast, and variants of the full breakfast and continental breakfast are also prevalent.

American breakfast begins in Europe, which provided the food norms imported by early colonizers. There, the day's first meal had emerged from centuries of prohibition under the Catholic Church.

Today, 70 percent of bacon is eaten at breakfast. Bacon and eggs is an iconic American combo. All thanks to Edward Bernays.

Time's up! It's eggs. No word on how people like them to be prepared, but fully 65 percent of the Americans surveyed ranked eggs as their top breakfast pick, while coffee and cereal followed with 58 percent and 56 percent, respectively.

What is the most commonly eaten breakfast in America?

Per person, Japan consumes the most eggs every year. The average person in Japan eats about 320 eggs per year. That is almost one egg per day.

Americans typically have a sandwich for lunch, and the most popular type is the PB&J. Other typical lunch items include pizza, chicken nuggets, and tacos.

Chicken tops the list of foods Millennials typically eat for a weekday dinner, with 70% doing so; 46% eat beef; 39%, a burger; 31%, fish; and 28%, pork. Pasta, pizza, salad, rice, and Mexican foods are other popular weekday dinner items for young adults (Ypulse 2018).

The average American consumes about 18 lbs. each year. Bacon accounts for 18% of all pork consumption in the U.S. The Danish consumes the most pork in the world.

Nebraska tops the list as the most bacon-centric state, with a consumption rate that's a whopping 132% above the national average. Strangely, right across Nebraska's southern border, Kansas comes in on the opposite end of the spectrum, with a consumption rate that's 26% below our national average.

United States

The term bacon on its own generally refers to side bacon, which is the most popular type of bacon sold in the US. Back bacon is known as "Canadian bacon" or "Canadian-style bacon", and is usually sold pre-cooked and thick-sliced.

People have been eating eggs for a very long time— about six million years! The first people to eat eggs took them from nests in the wild and ate the eggs raw. There is no way to know who ate the first egg. What researchers do know is people living in Egypt and China were the first to keep hens.

In the US, to reduce the risk of salmonella infection, eggs are washed and sprayed with a chemical sanitiser before they are sold to the public. Clean eggs are kept at cooler temperatures to prevent the eggs from deteriorating as quickly and to keep the growth of bacteria in check.

In the 1920s Bernays was hired by the Beech-Nut Packing Company, which made everything from pork products to chewing gum, to help them sell bacon. Bernays talked enough doctors into endorsing a bacon-and-eggs breakfast as healthful and peddled the "study" to newspapers.

Why do they put the eggs in the fridge in America?

The answer has to do with bacteria: Salmonella. In the United States, it's more than a food safety recommendation that eggs be refrigerated – it's the law. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) determined that the best way to fight Salmonella contamination is by sanitizing the eggs before they reach the consumer.

We aren't the only country who washes our eggs. Japan, Australia, and some Scandinavian countries also wash their eggs.

In the United States, breakfast often consists of either a cereal or an egg-based dish. However, pancakes, waffles, toast, and variants of the full breakfast and continental breakfast are also prevalent.

In the U.S., egg producers with 3,000 or more laying hens must wash their eggs. Methods include using soap, enzymes or chlorine. The idea is to control salmonella, a potentially fatal bacteria that can cling to eggs.

Husbandry and hygiene practices in Europe

In Europe, it is unlawful to wash eggs because this process is believed to damage an outside layer of the egg shell known as the cuticle, making it easier for bacteria to penetrate the inside of an egg.

People who consume raw or undercooked eggs can get Salmonella infection, which doctors also call salmonellosis. According to the FDA, the symptoms of a Salmonella infection occur within 12 to 72 hours of eating contaminated food.

With proper storage, eggs typically stay fresh 3–5 weeks past the pack date — the date they were gathered, cleaned, and stored in refrigeration. After 5 weeks, your eggs might start to decline in freshness. They could lose flavor and color, and the texture might even be somewhat altered.

British authorities actually discourage refrigerating eggs on the theory that chilling and then warming could create condensation, which would allow salmonella to penetrate the shell.

The answer is quite simple — egg color depends on the breed of the chicken. For example, White Leghorn chickens lay white-shelled eggs, while Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds lay brown-shelled eggs ( 1 , 2 ).

Americans wash their eggs

According to Huff Post, what really separates American eggs from eggs in the U.K. is the fact that we wash our eggs in the U.S. before they go to market. NPR goes on to explain that America, along with a handful of other countries, are the only ones to do so.

What is America's number one breakfast?

Did you guess correctly? Bacon is crowned America's favorite breakfast food! It's salty and savory flavor is what makes this breakfast side so addicting.

Breakfast (das Frühstück)

Germans are serious about their baked goods and that starts with breakfast. A German breakfast consists of hearty Brot (breads) and Brötchen (rolls), decorated with butter, sweet jams and local honey, thinly sliced meats, cheese and even some Leberwurst.

In the UK, Grade A hen eggs may not be washed because the process is thought to "aid the transfer of harmful bacteria like salmonella from the outside to the inside of the egg," according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

While most Americans store eggs in the fridge, many Europeans do not. This is because authorities in most European countries say refrigerating eggs is unnecessary. But in the United States, it is considered unsafe to store eggs at room temperature.

You may not have realized that Europeans actually buy and store their milk outside of the fridge. The reason is a simple one: Europeans rely on a completely different pasteurization method. Canadian and American milk manufacturers utilize high-temperature, short-time pasteurization.