Determining which is ostensibly more popular is pretty easy. After all, I don’t recall that I’ve ever seen sausage bits served up at a salad bar, nor do I suspect that the executives at Burger King have ever floated the idea of serving up a sundae with sausage logs stuffed deep into soft-serve ice cream. Bacon is the clear winner of the popularity contest.
Health, of course, is a different matter, and anecdotally, I’d have to believe bacon is the less healthy of the two. Why, you ask? What hard science is backing my assertion? None whatsoever… at least not yet. This snap judgment is based solely on the fact that my mother banned bacon from our family breakfast table right around the time she was also banning pro wrestling from our television sets, theoretically because both were unhealthy for us in radically different ways.
Now that I’ve set up both my mother and myself to look foolish, it’s time to take a deep dive into two famously fat-heavy breakfast meats. Was mom correct to omit bacon from our Sunday morning breakfast plates, or was the serving of sausage that she replaced it with every bit as baneful?
When it comes to breakfast meats, two popular choices are turkey sausage and bacon. But is one healthier than the other? Looking at the nutrition facts, there are pros and cons to both options. Let’s break down the differences to see which one wins out overall.
Comparing Nutrients
Turkey sausage and bacon have some nutritional similarities but also key differences:
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Calories – 2 slices of bacon has 57 calories while 1 sausage link has ~100 calories, so sausage is higher.
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Fat – Bacon has 45g fat per 2 slices while sausage has 7g per link, making sausage higher in fat
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Saturated Fat – Sausage contains more saturated fat than bacon.
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Sodium – Sausage has 522mg sodium per link versus 255mg in 2 bacon slices.
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Cholesterol – Bacon has less at 12mg vs 67mg in sausage.
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Protein – Both contain 6-8g protein per serving, so protein content is comparable.
So while turkey sausage packs more calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium, bacon is higher in cholesterol.
Nutrient Differences in Detail
Looking closer at the nutrition profiles:
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Fat – The extra 2.5g of fat in sausage is significant, about 4% of your daily value.
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Saturated Fat – Sausage has nearly double the saturated fat as bacon, which is unhealthy for heart health.
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Sodium – The 522mg in sausage is 22% of your daily limit, much more than bacon’s 255mg.
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Cholesterol – Bacon’s cholesterol is substantially lower than sausage. High cholesterol intake can increase heart disease risk.
So while both meats are high in sodium, sausage eclipses bacon in the unhealthy fat and sodium categories.
Meats and Heart Health
In general, processed meats like sausage and bacon are associated with negative effects on heart health, including:
- Increased risk for heart attack and stroke
- Higher blood pressure
- Higher LDL “bad” cholesterol
So both meats should be eaten sparingly. But between the two, bacon appears to be less detrimental for a few reasons:
- Lower in total fat, saturated fat and sodium
- Contains less cholesterol
- Has been linked to slightly lower heart disease risk
Cooking Methods Matter
How you cook these breakfast meats also impacts their nutrition. Frying adds extra calories and fat compared to baking or broiling.
The overall healthiest preparation is to bake bacon and sausage. This reduces their fat content and avoids adding extra cooking oil. But even baked, sausage is still higher in calories, sodium and saturated fat than bacon.
Moderation Is Key
At the end of the day, both bacon and sausage are high-fat, high-sodium processed meats. The American Heart Association recommends limiting processed meats to 1-2 servings per week max.
Within these limits, bacon exhibits some modest advantages over turkey sausage, especially for heart health:
- Lower in total fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol
- Contains fewer calories per serving
However, moderation is still key with both. Having turkey sausage or bacon every day is not recommended. For overall health, limit processed meats and opt for lean proteins like eggs or plain Greek yogurt instead.
The Bottom Line
Analyzing the nutrition data, bacon does seem to be slightly healthier than turkey sausage. But the differences are small in the bigger picture.
If choosing between the two, bacon has modest benefits for a heart healthy diet. However, balance is important. Use both in moderation as part of an overall nutritious breakfast.
At 1-2 servings weekly of any processed meat, making turkey sausage or bacon an occasional breakfast treat is fine. Just be mindful of portions and avoid daily consumption.
Which one is healthier — the bacon or the sausage?
To tackle this in the fairest fashion possible, we should execute this comparison in as close to an apples-to-apples manner as we can muster. How do we juxtapose bacon with sausage using an approach based on figurative fruits? By using the generic bacon and common sausage that are sourced, manufactured and sold by established but generally unimpressive brands. At least that way, we can minimally presume that they’re escorting the same ordinary little piggies to market before transforming them into standardized breakfast bits. This enables us to set the stage for the sort of culinary contest that Bender Bending Rodriguez would undoubtedly describe as being “Fun on a bun.”
That’s why we’re going to end up comparing Banquet Brown ‘N Serve Sausage Links with Hormel Black Label Bacon. We could sloppily compare these on a serving-per-serving basis, but then we’d be stuck with data that doesn’t make any rational sense in a real-world setting. So instead, we’ll do a gram-for-gram breakdown of these two breakfast favorites:
When we analyze the numbers from our apples-to-apples, gram-for-gram breakdown, we see that the bacon is certainly more nutrient dense. Next, we’ll shift lenses to compare them on a slice-to-link basis (or, you know, how they’re likely to be parceled up and doled out on a breakfast plate):
See? This is why it’s important to evaluate all of the contexts. If you plan to evenly distribute links and strips, you’ll be receiving more overall calories from your sausage selection with slightly less cholesterol and sodium, while the protein difference is negligible.
Is turkey bacon healthier than the regular stuff?
FAQ
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