Killing Hot Dogs

Your parents always told you not to eat much fast food, and hot dogs in particular, they said it’s bad for your health. So what a bun and a sausage with toppings can really do to you and were your parents right?

All hot dogs (and other meat that has been cured, such as bacon or salami) contain nitrates, which are added to the meat during the cooking process to prevent the growth of botulism and to help the hot dogs maintain a vibrant pinkish color (without the nitrates, the hot dogs would turn brown or gray). Here’s the catch, though. In the human body, these nitrates form nitrosamines, which have been associated with various cancers. 

According to The Cancer Project: Eating a hot dog every day can increase your risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent. An NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study found that processed red meat was associated with a 10 percent increased risk of prostate cancer with every 10 grams of increased intake. A study in Taiwan showed that consumption of cured and smoked meat can increase children's risk for leukemia. A study in Australia found that women's risk for ovarian cancer increased as a result of eating processed meats.
 All that sounds pretty bad. But if you think that buying organic hot dogs alleviate the problem then you may be sorely disappointed. It's the same nitrites and nitrates in processed meats such as hot dogs that are linked with all sorts of cancers. Nitrates and nitrites are used in the processing of meat to provide the color and taste we've all grown accustomed to in our dogs. They're also used to kill bacteria and prevent botulism. Conventional hot dogs use sodium nitrite, the synthetic version, while natural and organic versions use celery powder or celery juice to preserve their product. But in fact both have heavy doses of nitrate, according to The New York Times.

So what can we conclude? Not to eat hot dogs and mom was right? And yes, and no.

Eating hot dogs often can really have bad influence on you. But researches have shown that Vitamin C and A can reduce the nitrates twice. So if you can afford hot dog, not every day, combining with products containing vitamins C and A, that won’t hurt you that much.