It's hot-dog season. Whether you call them franks, frankfurters, wieners or hot dogs, they're cooked sausages we love to throw on the grill, toss into buns, squirt with ketchup and eat in five easy bites. While they may not make your hands greasy, some brands of hot dogs can wreak havoc on your daily fat intake. Not to mention your sodium allowance. But if you choose the right frank, it is possible to please both your kids and your arteries.
Consider this: The average beef or pork hot dog (38 grams) delivers 100 calories, eight grams of fat, four grams of cholesterol-raising saturated fat and 350 milligrams of sodium. If you opt for a "jumbo size" frank (75 grams or two hot-dog servings), you'll consume about 200 calories, 15 grams of fat (seven of them saturated) and 700 milligrams of sodium -- roughly an entire day's worth of saturated fat and a third of a day's sodium intake for healthy adults.
(Healthy women should consume no more than 6.5 grams of saturated fat a day and men no more than 9 grams. All adults should limit their daily sodium intake to no more than 2,300 mg and children should eat even less.)
A regular fare of hot dogs might do more than raise your cholesterol or blood pressure numbers. Studies suggest that a diet containing plenty of processed meats -- hot dogs, bacon and sausages -- increases the risk of colon and pancreatic cancer. A recent multiethnic study from the Cancer Research Center at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu that followed 190,545 men and women for seven years found that heavy consumers of processed meats (40 grams a day or more) were 67 per cent more likely to develop cancer of the pancreas than study participants who ate the least.
Researchers suspect that the increased cancer risk from processed meats is due to chemical reactions that occur during cooking. These reactions can produce carcinogens called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
There's also some concern that chemical additives in hot dogs and other processed meats, called nitrites, might increase the risk of cancer. Sodium nitrite is added to processed meat to safeguard against botulism, a deadly form of food-borne illness.
The additive also contributes flavour, colour and texture to processed meats. During digestion, nitrites are converted to nitrosamines, compounds that have been shown to cause cancer in lab animals. While some studies have linked a high intake of dietary nitrites to certain cancers, nitrosamines haven't been shown to cause cancer in people. (Nitrites are also found in drinking water, carrots and green vegetables.)
Vitamin C compounds, such as sodium ascorbate and sodium erythrobate are added to foods that contain sodium nitrate, because they prevent nitrosamines from forming in the body.
All this doesn't mean you need to give up hot dogs. If you eat processed meats often, consider cutting back. When shopping for hot dogs, read nutrition labels to choose a healthier frank. Whether it's beef, pork, chicken or turkey, choose a hot dog with no more than three grams of saturated fat and less than 500 mg of sodium.
Keep in mind that extras such as bacon and cheese add more calories, fat and sodium. One President's Choice Cheddar Cheese and Onion Frankfurter (75 grams) contains 258 calories, 22 grams of fat, 8.6 grams of saturated fat and 788 mg of sodium. And that's before the bun and condiments. Add a "Gigantico" hot dog roll and you're looking at a total of 458 calories, 25 grams of fat and 1,228 mg of sodium.Not all hot dogs are dripping in saturated fat. If you're looking for beef or pork wieners, Compliments' Old Fashioned Wieners, Maple Leaf Top Dogs Original, Shopsy's All Beef and Schneider's Light Wieners all come in under three grams of saturated fat per 38-gram serving. You'll also save fat grams if you switch to chicken or turkey wieners; most brands contain no more than two grams of saturated fat per serving.
However, just because it's made from chicken doesn't mean it's lean -- or lower in sodium. One Schneider's Chicken Weiner has 13 grams of fat (four of them saturated) and 948 mg of sodium. That's a far cry from Maple Lodge's Original Chicken Wiener with 1.5 grams saturated fat and 390 mg of sodium.
If you're trying to avoid saturated fat completely, you'll need to go meatless. Most soy hot dogs have no saturated fat and are considerably lower in sodium than their meat counterparts.
Whether you opt for beef or pork, chicken or turkey, apply the same food safety guidelines to hot dogs you would to any perishable product. When you leave the grocery store, head straight home and refrigerate or freeze them immediately.
Although hot dogs are fully cooked when you buy them at the grocery store, they should always be reheated until steaming hot before eating. Studies have shown a high level of the harmful listeria bacteria on hot dogs (as well as on other processed and ready-to-eat meat products). People at risk for listeria food poisoning (listeriosis) include the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. Pregnant women are advised to avoid hot dogs altogether.
Once opened, hot dogs can be safely stored for one week. Don't leave hot dogs sitting at room temperature for more than two hours; in hot weather (32 C) don't leave them sitting out for more than one hour.
Hot dogs aren't perfect foods. But if you read nutrition labels and cook them right, the occasional hot dog can be part of a healthy summer diet.
Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based dietitian at the Medcan Clinic, is on CTV's Canada AM every Wednesday. Visit her website at lesliebeck.com.
Leslie Beck