Hot Dogs are Too Dangerous for Human Consumption

If you’ve been a GSG reader for long, you know I’ve said a million times that “all things in moderation” does NOT mean we should eat poison—in any amount, moderate or otherwise. And I often point out that while my diet isn’t perfect, there are some things I never, ever eat, and absolutely stand up to my children ever eating them. Trans fats (like shortening), pork, and soda are among them. But, today’s topic:

I NEVER eat, or allow my kids, to eat processed meat. Just like I don’t let them stick their hand in a fan, or ride down the freeway on top of my car, or jump into a swimming pool with 2 feet of water.

It’s too dangerous. It’s actually crazy.

And why? Check out THIS REVIEW of a World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) meta-study reviewing 7,000 clinical studies. The reviewer concludes that processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption—ever.

Read the study’s list of what processed meats are. Jerky, bacon, sausage, lunch meat, and hot dogs, you probably knew that. But did you know that sodium nitrate, a deadly carcinogen, is also found in frozen pizza meat, canned soup meat, frozen meals, ravioli, kids’ meals, and virtually all red meat sold in public schools, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, and theme parks?

Not mentioned in the review is a 2001 study that children with cancer were highly likely, far more than children in general, to eat a lot of hot dogs. In fact, high consumption of processed meat was the ONLY thing children with cancer had in common.

This article does mention that if you eat processed meat, your risk of pancreatic cancer increases 67 percent. Have you ever known anyone who died of pancreatic cancer? A friend of mine , just a few years older, died of this disease this year, leaving six children, some of them underage.

That is one ugly, brutal way to leave us behind. Please don’t.

And every 50 grams daily of processed meat that you eat increases your risk of colo-rectal cancer by 21 percent.

These are by no means the only statistics in the review of 7,000 studies. It’s now very clear that nitrites and nitrates on the ingredient label are just begging to give you cancer.

This article reminds us why bacon, and nitrites added to food, are not banned by law. (In the 1970’s, in all fairness, the USDA did try to ban sodium nitrate.) The reason is, because powerful food industries virtually control the USDA and FDA.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, will you please not feed processed meat to your children, no matter how cheap it is? Hot dogs are called “cancer sticks” for good reason. And please don’t eat them, supporting that industry, and please share real hard data with friends who don’t know better. (Friends don’t let friends eat salami!)

Posted in: Relationships, Whole Food