Hot Dogs Take a Hit
…in a new ad campaign by a vegetarian-oriented research group, The Cancer Project.
According to the Associated Press, the ad has touched a lot of nerves, from the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council to the American Cancer Society, which beat a quick retreat from the controversy.
However, other nutritionists have stepped in to defend the hot dog. “My concern about this campaign is it’s giving the indication that the occasional hot dog in the school lunch is going to increase cancer risk,” said Colleen Doyle, the American Cancer Society’s nutrition director. “An occasional hot dog isn’t going to increase that risk.”
The occasional hot dog? Probably not…but then again, that isn’t necessarily what we’re talking about here. Personally, I think this is a bit cowardly on the part of the ACS.
Now, it’s completely fair to say that the ad is alarmist…it features kids, after all and – in reality – colorectal cancer in children is actually quite rare. According to the National Cancer Institute, the incidence is one in a milliion (younger than 20 years old) in the United States annually, and is usually linked to family history/heredity. The tag line at the end of the ad, “…can lead to adult cancers” doesn’t really clarify things either, since most people diagnosed with the disease are in their 50’s and 60’s. Thus, the link between childhood consumption of processed meats and adult cancer is more than a little fuzzy.
Know what? I don’t care. While I’m no vegetarian, I’m also no fan of hot dogs: roughly 80% of the calories in your typical wiener come from fat…basically, it’s a cylinder of seasoned, meat-flavored grease. One of my buds from graduate school went to work in a local firm that made processed meats and quit after 3 months in disgust - after seeing how they were made, she swore she’d never eat another hot dog again.
In other words, I can’t think of anything positive about them, nutritionally speaking. They’re just nasty. And they’d still be nasty even if there wasn’t a strong correlation between increased risk of colorectal cancer and intake of processed meats. Thus, while this ad may be over-the-top, it may just make kids – and their parents – think a little more about the connection between diet and long-term health. From where I sit, that can’t be bad.
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Rob on 29 Aug 2008 at 9:32 pm #
I hate hot dogs. My wife and kid love them. To think of all the gross stuff ground up in them. At times when the family menu includes them for dinner, I have to have mine burned them black on the grill just to reduce the salivary sensation of the fatty juices squirting as I bite.
I read this same report in yesterdays local newspaper. It also had a chart of a pig showing where the ingro-dients come from so I invited her to see for herself, but she didn’t want to look.
Ah, ignorance is bliss, or in her case hog heaven.
Elissa on 29 Aug 2008 at 11:13 pm #
LOL – in Food Science jargon, hot dogs are known as “comminuted meat products” – and they’re about as appetizing as the name implies.
In ye olden days, most people had to live off what they had available, so sausages were part of the lifestyle. Fat was an important source of calories for people engaged in manual labor; and likewise, farmers couldn’t afford to waste the “offal” of a slaughtered animal. And – in truth – those “parts” are nutritious, even if they’re somewhat unappetizing to modern palates.
But we’re a long way from those days: most people don’t need the extra calories, and – even for leaner people, making “room” for fatty hot dogs on the menu means displacing more nutritious foods. The fact that routine consumption could increase the risk of colorectal cancer just makes it more vivid.