| Newspaper
Coverage
The Boston Globe featured a wonderful article on
March 18, 2002, in its Consumer Beat column.
The Boston Globe Consumer Beat Column
By Bruce Mohl, The Boston Globe
Americans are having a love affair with the hot dog, but some medical research suggests
the relationship may not be a healthy one.
Hot dogs are very high in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Eaten regularly, or
as part of a diet consisting of similar fatty foods, hot dogs can elevate the risk of
obesity, heart disease, and even colon cancer.
Diabetes may now be another concern. A study published in this month's issue of Diabetes
Care by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health has drawn a tentative link
between fairly heavy consumption of hot dogs and other processed meats and Type 2
diabetes.
In a group of 42,504 health professionals, consuming hot dogs, bacon, salami, or sausage
two to four times per week increased the risk of diabetes by 35 percent. Eating the
products five or more times per week increased the risk by nearly 50 percent.
What should American consumers, who are expected to wolf down more than 20 billion hot
dogs this year, do with this information?
The advocates on either side of the issue are quick with answers. The American Meat
Institute Foundation points out the weaknesses of the diabetes study and its tentative
nature, and says the keys to good health are a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. Who
could argue with that?
Dr. Neal D. Barnard, head of the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine, a Washington-based group that advocates better nutritional
habits to prevent disease, said the study underscores the need for Americans to stop
eating meat hot dogs and shift to meatless ones made of tofu or vegetable ingredients.
"Forget the moderation myth," Barnard said. "It applies to healthy foods,
not unhealthy ones. In other words, broccoli is good for you, but you don't want to eat
only broccoli. Ditto for rice, apples, or anything else that's helpful. But moderation
does not apply to cigarettes, heroin, or hot dogs. It's easier to make a clean
break."
Persuading Americans to shift to meatless hot dogs won't be easy. At the Super Stop &
Shop in Quincy, there are more than a dozen brands of hot dogs prominently displayed in
the meat case, which is in a high-traffic area. Consumers bought $1.7 billion worth of hot
dogs at retail during the past year, according to Information Resources Inc.
It took me 10 minutes, and I ultimately needed the help of an attendant, to find the one
brand of meatless dogs Stop & Shop sells. The Morningstar Veggie Dogs were tucked away
nearly out of sight in the organic frozen food section.
The Morningstar Veggie dogs cost $3.19 a pack, cheaper than many of the meat hot dogs I
surveyed. A package of Fenway Franks cost $3.29, the Stop & Shop brand cost $2.59, and
Hebrew National reduced fat beef franks cost $3.79.
Meatless dogs are now available at a handful of the nation's baseball parks and arenas,
but not at Fenway Park, where the $3.25 Fenway Frank reigns supreme.
Rick Perry, the warehouse/concessions manager for Aramark, which operates the food
services at Fenway, said hot dog sales track attendance almost perfectly, meaning that for
nearly every fan who comes to Fenway, Aramark sells a Fenway Frank.
"Everything's all beef here," Perry said. "There's no demand for vegetarian
alternatives."
Vegetarian alternatives are different. The Morningstar Veggie Dog looks pretty much like a
hot dog. Smothered in ketchup, relish, and mustard, it even tastes something like a hot
dog. Grilling is where you really notice the difference. A regular hot dog sizzles and
leaves an oily stain. The Veggie Dog barely makes a sound as it cooks and leaves no stain.
The veggie dog has 80 calories, five of which come from fat. Its only nutritional negative
is sodium. A single veggie dog represents 24 percent of your daily sodium needs, based on
the standard 2,000-calorie diet.
By contrast, a single Fenway Frank, made by Kahn's in Cincinnati, has 170 calories, 140 of
which are from fat. As for your daily needs, the Fenway Frank provides 24 percent of the
fat, 36 percent of the saturated fat, 10
percent of the cholesterol, and 24 percent of the sodium. Did I forget to
mention that hot dogs also have sodium nitrites, which over the years have
been linked inconclusively to cancer and birth defects?
The diabetes link to hot dogs is tentative. It's difficult to isolate what
causes diabetes, let alone finger a single food as the culprit. The study
also relied heavily on the ability of study participants to recall what they
ate, drank, smoked, and how much they exercised over a period of several
years.
Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public
Health and one of the report's authors, defends the accuracy of the study. But he
acknowledged the hot dog link to diabetes requires further research. With or without
confirmation, he said, the medical evidence indicates Americans should go easy on the hot
dogs.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is trying to get ahead of the curve this time,
warning consumers about another free-after-rebate company that isn't paying up.
Spitzer said he is aware of more than 200 complaints alleging UrbanQ.com of Cedarhurst,
N.Y., is failing to pay promised rebates. The company sells discounted clothing, but it
also sells products at prices well above normal retail levels with the promise of rebates
that make the items free or low cost.
The unusual free-after-rebate business model, which apparently relies on some consumers
failing to redeem their rebates, brought down Cyberrebate.com last year, leaving 200,000
consumers owed more than $90 million in rebates. |
