These vegan health articles are presented to assist you in taking a pro-active part in your own health.
See All-Creatures.org Health Position and Disclaimer
Personally, I think we should engage a
little truth in advertising and just mandate that hot dogs be
reshaped
into fleshy cancer tumors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics made headlines in late February 2010 with a bizarre recommendation that hot dogs should be re-shaped to make them less of a choking hazard for children. But there's no mention of all the cancer-causing chemical ingredients that actually go into the hot dogs. Pediatric physicians are apparently more concerned about the shape than the ingredients. And they apparently have no concern about the truth that hot dogs contain cancer-causing ingredients.
Hot dogs contain sodium nitrite, of course -- a cancer-causing ingredient that's been widely linked to pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer. People who eat hot dogs and other processed meats have a 67% increased risk of pancreatic cancer
Processed meats no doubt contribute to a large number of childhood cancers. According to the National Cancer Institute, over 1,500 children die each year in the United States from childhood cancer..
How many children actually die from choking on hot dogs, anyway? I'll bet you it's a fraction of the number of children who die from leukemia or brain cancer each year.
That the AAP would be so concerned about the shape of hot dogs while remaining silent about the health harm caused by hot dog ingredients isn't all that surprising, actually: These are physicians who often focus on treating children with yet more chemicals such as ADHD drugs, antibiotics and antidepressants. One such pediatrician just got arrested for sexually assaulting over one hundred children in his medical practice.
Of course, that whacko doesn't represent all pediatricians. Most pediatric physicians are caring human beings who really want to help children. And that's where this advice about changing the shape of hot dogs comes from: These doctors genuinely want to prevent children from choking on these processed meat products.
So what should the new shape be... rectangular? Should hot dogs be made into long rectangle shapes so they resemble pink lumber? It would certainly prevent them from rolling out of the buns, wouldn't it?
Then again, we might have to redesign the buns, too. Square hot dogs, you see, don't fit right in round buns. So we'd have to recalibrate the entire chain of processed junk food just to prevent children from choking on the dogs.
Personally, I think we should engage a little truth in advertising and just mandate that hot dogs be reshaped into fleshy cancer tumors. That way, you really know what you're eating. If these dogs resembled the diseased animals they're sometimes made from, choking would no longer be a problem at all because no one would eat them in the first place!
Check out my
mystery meat macrophotography to see actual pictures of hot dogs,
salami and other processed meats up close and personal.
What's really in hot dogs?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 60 percent of all infant choking emergency room visits are caused by food. Another one-third are caused by non-food items such as coins, buttons and marbles, and 9 percent of choking incidents are caused by "undetermined" objects. As in, "What the heck does little Joey have in his mouth?"
If he's choking on a hot dog, then what he has in his mouth should be quite frightening: Ground-up bits of meat scraps gathered from thousands of different carcasses from animals that were pumped full of hormones, fed chicken litter as part of their diet, treated inhumanely and slaughtered in a highly fearful environment that releases even more "terror" hormones into the meat at the moment of death.
Return to Vegan Health Articles
Visit Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-productsWe began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.