Hot dogs are, without a doubt, one of the most popular foods in America. In fact, the several major cities are famous for their style of hot dogs, and it would be sacrilegious to eat it the “wrong” way while in their territory. For instance, if you’re in Chicago, hot dogs come with a whole bunch of different toppings, but you can forget about ketchup… that’s a big no-no in the Windy City. Indeed, Americans are serious about the hot dogs and that shouldn’t come as a surprise as they consume about 7 billion hot dogs during the summer months. But sadly, as delicious as they are, they aren’t necessarily good for you.
Hot dog sausages are usually made with pork, beef, and chicken meat. But not all sausages are created equally, with many of them being made with various fillers, additives, and preservatives.
Many of the cheaper sausages will use a lot of animal remains that aren’t quite choice cuts, including fat, legs, and claws. What else is in there? Additives such as salt, monosodium glutamate, corn syrup, and sometimes even carmine… what the heck is carmine? Well, it’s powdered insect bodies that are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution. Yikes. These additives aren’t usually listed on the labels so you don’t really know what the heck is in your hot dogs. To make matters much worse, hot dog sausages contain a lot of cancer-causing nitrites. Researchers at the University of Hawaii have found that hot dog meat, as well as other processed meats, can raise the chances of developing pancreatic cancer by up to 67%! Scary!
Check out the video below to see how hot dogs are made and let us know what you think!
