Why Kevin Bacon refuses to eat bacon: “I can’t do that my whole life”
In 2023, Kevin Bacon dropped a bombshell that no cinephiles ever saw coming. To their amazement, the actor admitted something that made everyone contemplate whether everything they previously believed was a lie: Mr Bacon doesn’t actually eat bacon.
Now, obviously, I’m having a bit of fun here with the mild revelation that the iconic Footloose star doesn’t partake in his crispy, salty, delicious namesake. As soon as a smiling Bacon admitted to People magazine that he’d chosen to stop eating bacon, though, people began wondering why. Had he decided at 65 years old that it was just too weird to keep eating a product that bore his name? Did he want to throw the world a curveball and generate some headlines? Did he not like the taste anymore, as unlikely as that may sound?
In reality, none of the above theories were on the mark, and the truth was a lot more heartwarming. Bacon revealed that he declared a moratorium on bacon and all other pork products because living on a farm in Connecticut had finally opened his eyes to the fact that bacon comes from cute, rolly-poly pigs, just like the ones living in his very own pigpen. Hell, the same thing applied to goat meat, which would never again find its way into one of his curries after he spent time looking in the beady eyes of the goats running around his fields.
“I no longer eat goat, and I no longer eat pig, because I have goats and I have pigs,” he chuckled. “My wife is like, ‘We can’t get any more animals, because you’re going to stop eating everything.’”
Indeed, it sounds like Bacon’s wife – actress Kyra Sedgwick, who co-starred alongside him in Murder in the First – doesn’t share her husband’s aversion to eating animals once you get to know them. For him, though, they serve a therapeutic purpose, and he’s not going to chow down anymore on something that brings him so much peace. “I love animals, they are a joy to be around,” he nodded, “and they’re very, very calming for me.”
For Bacon, the real benefit of living on a working farm, which also houses three miniature horses and three alpacas (none of whom are on the menu, mind you), is that he can grow his own produce. He’s always been a slim bloke, never much fat on him, but as he got older he realised he couldn’t just bank on his genes to keep him trim. To stay in shape, he had to start eating better, so he turned to the fresh fruit and veg he grows himself.
“We really love to go into the garden and get fresh herbs or tomatoes or basil or peppers or zucchini,” Bacon revealed, before waxing lyrical about how incredible he feels when he can take “something hot off the vine” that feels fresh and natural, unlike the processed foods that dominate most people’s diets these days. To him, it’s all about taking the “natural forces” of the world – sun, air, water, earth, dirt – and using them to nourish your body. It helps him feel close to nature, for one thing, but he’s also never felt healthier in his life.
There is an unhappy byproduct to Bacon’s embrace of a farm-to-table lifestyle, though, if only for prospective Hollywood collaborators. For decades, business meetings in the movie business have always taken place in fancy restaurants, but these days, Bacon rarely darkens the door of even the ritziest New York eatery. He likes to be the one cooking his own meals now, and hates having no idea what chefs are really putting on his plate.
“I can’t do that my whole life,” he mused. “I need to have a little bit more control over what I’m putting in my body.”
