Bacon is pork’s flashy, irresponsible cousin. It’s delicious. It’s crispy. It’s also a sodium monster. Just two slices of cured bacon can pack over 400 milligrams of sodium. That’s almost 20% of your daily limit—before breakfast is even over.
Why so salty? Because bacon is cured. Curing is basically a salt bath for meat. It preserves it, flavors it, and turns it into the crispy strips we worship. But it also turns your blood pressure into a roller coaster.
Fun fact: bacon’s sodium content varies wildly by brand. One strip might have 150 mg. Another might have 250 mg. It’s like a salty lottery. You never know what you’re gonna get.
Ham: The Salty Centerpiece
Ham is another story. A single slice of deli ham—just one thin piece—can have 200 to 300 mg of sodium. That’s because ham is brined. Brining means soaking the meat in a saltwater solution for days. It’s practically a science experiment.
But wait, there’s more. Glazed ham at holidays? Oh boy. The glaze often adds brown sugar, which is fine, but it also adds more salt as a flavor booster. Your Easter dinner just became a sodium symposium.
Here’s a quirky detail: the word "ham" comes from an old English word for "thigh." So you’re basically eating a salted thigh. Sounds like something a Viking would eat after a long voyage.