CHICAGO — A new TV commercial shows kids eating hot dogs in a school cafeteria and one little boy’s haunting lament: “I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer.”
It’s a startling revelation in an ad that vilifies one of America’s most beloved, if maligned, foods, while stoking fears about a dreaded disease.
But the boy doesn’t have cancer. Neither do two other kids in the ad who claim to be afflicted.
The pro-Âvegetarian sponsors of the commercial call it a dramatization that highlights research linking processed meats, including hot dogs, with higher odds of getting colon cancer.
But that connection is based on studies of adults, not children, and the increased risk is slight, even if you ate a hot dog a day. While compelling, it isn’t conclusive.
So what exactly is the truth about hot dogs?
The bottom line from several nutritionists familiar with the ad is this: Hot dogs aren’t exactly a health food, but occasionally eating one probably won’t hurt.
“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.”
Americans as a whole eat hot dogs more than occasionally. According to the National Hot Dog &Sausage Council, U.S. consumers spent more than $4 billion on hot dogs and sausages last year. That includes more than 1.5 billion pounds of hot dogs and sausages bought at retail stores alone.
For a U.S. adult, eating one hot dog daily for several years would increase the average risk of getting colorectal cancer from 5.8 percent to 7 percent, said dietitian Karen Collins, nutrition adviser with the American Institute for Cancer Research. Eating a hot dog once or twice a month would mean up to about a 1.4 percent increased risk.
The health concerns primarily come from their high fat and salt content and sodium nitrate and nitrite, commonly added preservatives and color-enhancers. Nitrate-related substances have been reported to cause cancer in animals, but there’s no proof they do that in people.
Hot dogs typically contain muscle meat trimmings from pork or beef. Contrary to legend, they do not contain animal eyeballs, hooves or genitals, according to the Hot Dog Council’s Janet Riley.
But the government does allow them to contain pig snouts and stomachs, cow lips and livers, goat gullets and lamb spleens. If they have these byproducts, the label should spell out which ones, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said.
Some also are made with leaner meats, including turkey, as well as tofu or soy protein.
Check the label of a name-brand hot dog, and chances are fat provides around 80 percent of total calories, more than double what’s often advised. What’s more, saturated fat and trans fat — the fats most strongly linked with artery clogging — are common ingredients, in some cases providing at least half the fat content.
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