Looking for a healthier hot dog to throw on the grill? Well, if you choose the right frank – and you don't eat them everyday – it is possible to please both your kids and your arteries. Our nutrition expert, Leslie Beck, has the lowdown on what to look for in a healthier hot dog – from beef to chicken to veggie.
Q: How do hot dogs rate when it comes to nutrition? Are they nutritional nightmares?
Hot dogs aren't perfect foods. Not even close. Beef and pork hot dogs are high in saturated fat and sodium. And the bigger the hot dog, the worse the nutrition.
For example, this is a typical hot dog you buy from a vendor on the street – a large bun and almost a 1/4 pound frank with all the condiments – mustard, ketchup, relish, pickles, and onions. This has about 560 calories, 24 grams of fat – almost half a day's worth for women – and here's the shocker: 2,239 milligrams of sodium. That's the upper daily limit for sodium! It's the same amount of sodium in 5 large orders of McDonald's French Fries.
The average beef or pork hot dog (38 grams) delivers 100 calories, 4 grams of saturated fat and 350 milligrams of sodium. A "jumbo size" frank (75 grams or two hot dog servings) 200 calories, and as much as 8 grams of saturated and 800 milligrams of sodium – roughly half a day's worth of saturated fat and sodium. If you eat this one you'd better make your other meals low in fat and sodium.
And hot dogs are a type of processed meat that's cured with salt and preservatives. We should be limiting how much processed meat we eat to stay healthy. So enjoy a hot dog as an occasional summer treat – and read labels to choose one that's lower in fat and sodium.
Q: So are some hot dogs better than others? What should you look for on labels?
Whether it's beef, pork, chicken or turkey, choose a hot dog (38 grams) with no more than 3 grams of saturated fat and less than 500 milligrams of sodium. Per 75 gram frank, look for no more than 6 grams of saturated fat and less than 800 milligrams of sodium. That's still half a day's worth of sodium, so go easy on salt the rest of the day.
Some companies offer light, or lower fat, franks. You'll also save fat if you switch to chicken or turkey wieners – most brands contain no more than 3 grams of saturated fat per serving. But some of these lower fat hot dogs can still have a lot of sodium, so read labels.
Q: What about nitrites in hot dogs – aren't they unhealthy?
Yes, there is some concern that chemical additives in hot dogs and other processed meats, called nitrites, might increase the risk of cancer. Sodium nitrite is added to processed meat to safeguard against botulism, a very serious foodbourne illness. The additive also adds colour to processed meats.
During digestion, nitrites are converted to nitrosamines, compounds that have been shown to cause cancer in lab animals. But companies add a form of vitamin C to processed meat which inhibits this conversion and helps minimize the risk.
Today you can buy nitrate-free hot dogs – Life Choices and Schneider's both have one.
Q: Is it better to go veggie?
Soy hot dogs don't have the saturated fat or the nitrites. But they are still processed and that means they have sodium. But most brands of soy dogs meet my sodium and fat criteria.
Q: What about condiments – how many extra calories do they contribute?
A tablespoon of ketchup, mustard and relish doesn't add many calories to a hot dog. One tablespoon of mustard has 12 calories and a tablespoon of ketchup or relish has 15 calories. But condiments do contribute sodium. A tablespoon of each has 150 to 170 milligrams of sodium. If you like all three, then you could easily be getting as much as 500 milligrams of sodium – one-third of a day's worth – from just the condiments.
