Bacon: Calories, Nutrition & Healthier Swaps

Bacon is cured, smoked pork belly: lots of fat and salt. It works best as a flavoring rather than the main event.

Bacon nutrition facts per 100 g and per serving

Values per 100 g as eaten, averaged from food composition tables (USDA FoodData Central and others) and rounded — a specific brand or recipe will differ a little.

Bacon: what's in it

Nutritionally it's mainly a source of energy: 500 kcal per 100 g, 150 kcal per serving.

On the open Nutri-Score algorithm, bacon gets an E: more of a sometimes food than an everyday one. The score weighs calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt against protein, fiber and the share of fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts.

What to watch

• High in saturated fat: 15 g per 100 g, against a daily reference of about 20 g.
• High in salt: 3.5 g per 100 g, while the WHO suggests no more than 5 g of salt a day in total.
• It's calorie-dense — 500 kcal per 100 g — so portion size matters most.

How much movement is one serving?

One serving (two slices, 30 g) is 150 kcal — roughly 49 min of easy walking or 19 min of cycling for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. In the diary, minutes are worked out for your weight and the activities you actually do.

Healthier swaps for Bacon

Swaps are picked the same way the app does it: from the same kind of food, with a serving matched to the same calories (±25%), and only when the swap is clearly better — not “salad instead of pizza”.

• Skewers of salmon — 70 g, 146 kcal: −2.4 g saturated fat, −0.8 g salt.
• Chicken feet, boiled — 70 g, 151 kcal: −1.8 g saturated fat, −0.8 g salt.
• Chicken drumstick, roasted — 70 g, 146 kcal: −2.3 g saturated fat, −0.8 g salt.
• Tandoori chicken — 70 g, 144 kcal: −2.2 g saturated fat, −0.8 g salt.