Tasting Spot: How Eggs & Bacon Became America’s Breakfast of Choice
Story by Lauren Yoon
America’s classic breakfast of bacon and eggs wasn’t decided by simple happenstance, as writer Lauren Yoon explains in this historical piece on the traditional morning meal.
The iconic American breakfast is one of steaming sunny-side-up eggs and bacon served at a squeaky vinyl booth heavy with the smell of butter and maple syrup. For Americans in the 1920s, however, breakfast was a lot different — until Edward Bernays came into the picture.
Bernays, dubbed the “father of public relations,” was hired by Beech-Nut Packing Co. to help improve their business in bacon. An American breakfast of the ’20s was surprisingly light: perhaps some sort of doughy roll, or cereal and milk with a cup of coffee. That meant bacon sales were down from the 19th century, when hardy breakfasts with cured meats were popular due to the difficult manual labor required of most working people.
Edward recruited a physician to ask thousands of doctors to confirm the benefit of a heavy breakfast over a light one — and 4,500 of them gave their support. He got the information published in newspapers, which declared:
4,500 Physicians Urge Heavy Breakfast to Improve Health of American People
Beech-Nut’s sales soared and today, a century later, the morning duo of eggs and bacon still reigns on American breakfast menus.
But how healthy is this traditional breakfast? Doctors and nutritionists debate it. Two eggs and two pieces of bacon can range anywhere from 300 to 500 calories, depending on cooking methods and what fat is used to cook the eggs. A single egg already has around 186 milligrams of cholesterol. Bacon has high levels of sodium, up to 20 percent of the recommended maximum daily intake, plus a notable amount of saturated fats. The combination tallies up to over 20 grams of protein, which is sure to satisfy until lunch. Adjustments can be made to make the meal healthier, such as subbing the two eggs with two servings of egg whites, using less salt and fat while cooking them, and serving vegan or turkey bacon instead of pork.
Regardless of whether eggs and bacon make a healthy way to start the day, the meal serves as a representation of Americana — nostalgia for “simpler times” and those checkerboard diner floors. The meal’s popularity also speaks to the power of marketing; Edward Bernays also famously won over female smokers with his “torches of freedom” campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes. The success of eggs and bacon reminds us that the foods we eat and why we eat them are often influenced by histories of propaganda, power and money.
