Bacon

You know that I love bacon.

J’adore bacon chocolate and I just mentioned the other day that my friend Patience made some amazing caramelized bacon that still has me drooling when I think about it.

(She posted the recipe today, by the way.)

(Oh, and I still have not tried bacon butties. Yet.)

I know that there are some people out there who think that the bacon phenom in food is over, but I’m not one of those people. Bacon is like leopard print – it’s a polarizing thing, but it’s also a classic and will be around forever. And it’s delicious.

So I wasn’t at all surprised when I recently heard that Burger King has a new limited edition bacon sundae. I must admit that I’m intrigued by this — sweet vanilla soft serve ice cream, chocolate fudge sauce, caramel sauce, salty smoky bacon. I’m pretty sure that those ingredients would come together to create food nirvana.

However…

This is Burger King we’re talking about. I am highly skeptical of any claims made by any fast food purveyor in the U.S. of A. On a related note, Grace’s 7th grade science fair project was an observation of fast food burgers to see how long it would take for them to decompose and get nasty. She bought plain burgers on buns from five different places — McDonald’s, Wendy’s, BK, Hardees, and Five Guys — and set them on a platter and took photos and notes every day. Nothing happened, y’all. The burgers did not get moldy or smelly or change in any discernible way. For three months. Then we tossed the burgers and decided that we were wise to eliminate fast food from our lives.

But, I come not to praise the BK bacon sundae, nor bury it. Let’s just look at it objectively, shall we? I’ll start with hard numbers.

According to the BK website, the bacon sundae has 510 calories. Honestly, this doesn’t surprise me. If I were to make my own bacon sundae at home, using 1/2 cup of Haagen-Dazs five vanilla ice cream (220 calories for a serving), drizzles of homemade fudge and caramel sauces, and a couple strips of organic bacon, I’m not going to be able to do it for less than 510 calories and it could even be more. (Which is, by the way, one-third of my daily allotment for a woman my size.) And my version would cost considerably more than the $2.49 that BK is charging.

The BK version of the bacon sundae has 61 grams of sugar, which is far, FAR, faaaaaaar more than the RDA for men (36 grams/9 teas.) or women (24 grams/6 teas.) On a related note, the average American consumes 84 grams/21 teas. of sugar on a daily basis.

Other numbers: 18 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 40 mg of cholesterol, and 670 mg of sodium. Again, these aren’t great numbers, but within the context of your RDA, they’re not going to kill you dead on the spot.

Here’s a positive review, if you’re interested, and I saw plenty of other good reviews online to back the linked one up. You can also find plenty of articles and posts online damning the BK bacon sundae for being passé, but let’s be honest here: Anyone who’s going to eat at BK and get this sundae for dessert isn’t going to care if the bacon bubble has burst. Frankly, I don’t either.

I’m not going to be trying the BK bacon sundae. I don’t eat fast food and there’s just no chance I’ll go there simply to try this sundae. If one were to fall into my path, I’d probably have a bite or two, but I’d be far too aware of the calories, sodium, and sugar to have more than that.

What about you? Have you tried the bacon sundae or will you? Why or why not?

Imagine that I took the time to type out the standard disclaimer that I don’t work for BK, wasn’t asked to try their products, yadda yadda yadda.