HOPE YOU LIKE YOUR HOT DOG ? Even though hot dogs are nutritionally bereft processed foods, Americans still consume seven billion of them every summer Eating just one hot dog a day raises your risk for colorectal cancer by 21 percent, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research When heated, nitrates and nitrites in processed meats combine with amines to form nitrosamines, proven to be carcinogenic Hot dogs are extruded from a ground-up slurry of animal carcass, including fatty tissues and skins, animal feet, heads, and other “edible” slaughter by-products To make hot dogs safe and palatable, a mélange of binders, fillers, flavorings, and preservatives are added, including corn syrup, nitrates, MSG, and other chemicals Wheres the Beef? Now that you know the basics of the process, lets take a closer look at the ingredients. Meat makes up a relatively small proportion of the average commercial hot dog. And its typically low-quality meat and meat by-products—which technically are not meat at all.7 Meat Turkey, chicken, beef, pork, and others Pork must be 20 percent or less due to risk of pathogens Fillers Corn syrup, dried milk, maltodextrin, cereal grains, and modified food starch Up to 3.5 percent Salt Sodium chloride One hot dog can contain 670mg sodium, more than 30 percent of your daily allowance8 Preservatives Potassium lactate, sodium phosphates, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, and sodium nitrate Flavorings Paprika and other spices, artificial flavorings, msg, carmine (a dye from the shells of small beetles, boiled in ammonia or sodium carbonate), and any number of other additives USDA does not require manufacturers to list these on labels, so just about anything goes when it comes to flavorings Water Water thins the meat batter so that it can be extruded into the desired form No more than 10 percent, per regulations Casings Derived from beef, pork, lamb, fibers, wood pulp, or plastic Many hot dog casings are removed prior to packaging so they dont have to be edible; others are made from plant or animal-derived cellulose, dissolved cowhides, or the intestinal tracts of farmed animals9
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 08:07:13 +0000
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