Bacon is a cured meat that usually comes from a pig. It is made by curing it with a large amount of salt, in dry packing or in brine. This results in green bacon, which is bacon that is fresh. The green bacon can be dried out for many weeks or even months in the cool air. It may also be smoked or boiled. Both dried and fresh bacon are usually cooked before you can eat them. Often bacon is fried in a pan. If you have boiled or smoked bacon, you can eat it directly or further cook it prior to eating. But do you know it is a good choice if you need to pay attention to carbs intake?

How Many Carbs in Bacon?

There aren't many carbs in bacon as you can see from this table:

Recommended Low Carb Dishes with Bacon

There are several great dishes that contain bacon, which are delicious with low carb. Just try them at home and enjoy them!

1.   Bacon & Egg

Bacon isn't exactly considered a healthy food because it is processed but, if you care about carbs in your diet, you can eat this recipe 1-2 times per week.

• Ingredients: Regular bacon, fresh eggs
• Instructions: Fry the bacon in a fry pan and set it on a dinner plate. Then fry the eggs any way you like, using the bacon fat instead of butter. You can also add salt, onion powder, or garlic powder to the eggs to beef up the flavor.

2.   Meat-Based Pizza

If you really like pizza, this is the recipe for you.

• Ingredients: Salsa, ground beef, garlic powder, spices, onions, bacon, and shredded cheese.
• Instructions: Cut up the bacon and onions into tiny pieces. Mix up the salsa, ground beef, spices, garlic powder and onions and put them in the bottom part of a baking dish. Put the shredded cheese on the top of the bottom layer and put the bacon pieces on top of that. Put the baking sheet in the oven set at 180-200 degrees Celsius or 356-392 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cheese and bacon appear crunchy.

3.   Bacon and Chicken Salad

This recipe contains a lot of protein because it has bacon and chicken in it—both are good sources of protein. You need to prepare more ingredients, but do you know how much carbs in bacon and chicken salad? There are just 2 grams if you follow the recipe.

• Ingredients: Cooked chicken (chopped, 2 cups), chopped poblano peppers (2 and roasted), chopped raw jicama (½ cup), chopped green onions and avocados (2 respectively), chopped cilantro (¼ cup), chopped cooked bacon (¼ cup), mayo (¼ cup), lime juice (2 tbl.), ground coriander (1 tsp.), ground cumin (2 tsp.), salt and pepper to your taste.
• Instructions: Mix up the chicken, green onions, poblano peppers, jicama, and avocado inside a bowl. In a littler bowl, mix up the mayonnaise, spices, and lime juice. Stir the dressing into the salad so that it is combined nicely. Then add the cilantro and bacon, leaving some out for a garnish. Season the salad with salt and pepper. Roll the salad in low carb tortilla chips, lettuce, or eat it just plain. You can add a little bit of tomato salsa if you like.

However, Be Cautious When Eating Bacon

How many carbs in bacon? As mentioned above, there aren't many. But there are other things in bacon that you should think about before eating a lot of bacon.

First, there is a lot of fat inside bacon. About 68 percent of the calories in bacon come straight from the fat. Half of this is saturated fats. When you eat foods that are high in saturated fat, you can elevate your levels of cholesterol, which can raise the chances of getting stroke and heart disease. For every ounce of bacon you eat, you are taking in about 30 mg of cholesterol, not including the amount of cholesterol found in the accompanying eggs. Bacon is, however, considerably better for you than sausage. Both types of meat are high in saturated fat but two sausage links have more fat and calories when compared to just 3 strips of bacon.

What's more, bacon is considered a processed food that can result in an increased risk of cancer. This is because it also contains the following:

• Carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAH. These are made during the processing of bacon.
• Nitrates, which are a preservative used in processed meat. It changes into N-nitroso during digestion, which can cause cancer.

So, regardless of how many carbs in bacon, you shouldn't eat bacon on a daily basis. When you do eat bacon, make sure the serving size is small and add some foods that are rich in antioxidants to the dish to offset the fat in the bacon. If you really like bacon, you should stay away from other types of processed foods, so you aren't eating a lot of processed foods.