The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine 2nd Issue | Page 7

Hot Dogs Are Not a Neutral Food
Hot Dogs are Not a
Neutral Food
Foods either Support Good Health or
contribute to sickness for your kids
>>>Cindy Cohen

W

Back in 2009, BMC Cancer found “children who
consume cured meats, like hotdogs and bacon,
were 74% more likely to develop leukemia. It’s
believed nitrites, which build up in cured and
smoked meats, amplify cancer-risk.”

hen my kids were little, I used
to think there were some foods
I could classify as neutral. You
know--foods that are not that
good but not really that bad for you either. For
example, hotdogs. Everyone knows hotdogs are
not on the healthy food list, but are they really
that unhealthy?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has
a thing or two to say about hotdogs, too. They
recommend hotdogs come with a warning label
related to the choking hazards--not because of
their nutritional risks. Do you find it is as strange
as I do that the AAP is more concerned with
dying from choking than they are from dying
from cancer? Just checking.

The truth is , as much as we would like to think
differently, foods are either healthy or unhealthy.
There are no neutral foods. Let’s take a look at
those hotdogs for a minute.
On July 3, 2012, the Daily News reported that the
20-member panel of the Washington, D.C. based
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
(PCRM) made a powerful statement.

That’s the short list of hotdog health hazards. A
quick internet search will fill you in with dozens
more. In my mind and I’m sure yours, too, this
certainly moves hotdogs from the neutral list
right over to the top of the super-unhealthynever-to -pass-my-kids-lips-again list.But wait
a minute.... What about all those kid-friendly,
yummy advertisements you see about healthy
hotdogs?

“We want to let people know that
processed meats have been closely linked
to colorectal cancer,” said PCRM’s Dr.
Ulka Agarwal.
In fact, PCRM thinks hotdogs are so unhealthy
that they compare them to the same health
danger as smoking cigarettes. You wouldn’t think
of giving your 2 year old a cigarette, so maybe you
should reconsider that hotdog.Oh, wait. There’s
more.

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Food manufactures have discovered
that if they put “healthy” advertising
on the package that you will be so
mesmerized that you will not notice
what is in the package.

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