If you want to eat sausage often, however, consider choosing healthier types of sausage, such as those made with chicken or turkey. You can also make your own to get the freshest variety with none of the harmful additives or high-fat meat.
Fresh or raw sausage: ground meat, fat, and spices that have been mixed but not cured or cooked (the meat is still raw). It's typically sold in casings, but you can also buy fresh sausage meat in patties or just loose like any other ground meat.
Chicken. The chicken variety is probably the smartest way to get your sausage fix. Most contain under 150 calories per link and 70% less fat than pork sausage. Plus, the flavor options are endless.
How to choose a healthier sausage. Look for a snag with a simple ingredients list that consists of meat, vegetables and natural casing. Compare brands and opt for a sausage with the highest percentage of meat — aim for at least 80 per cent beef, pork, lamb or chicken.
Are sausages healthy? Sausages are usually high in saturated fat and salt, so aren't a healthy option. Premium sausages can be even higher in saturated fat and salt than standard versions. Lower-fat sausages are a better choice, but can still be salty.
While you may pay more in a butchers vs a supermarket, you can rest assured that you are buying a higher quality of meat. As mentioned above, butchers are far more likely to stock fresher, locally sourced meat. As with many things, the higher the quality the higher the price.
Is there a healthy sausage? Sausages are not a health food. Due to the link between processed meat, red meat and colorectal cancer, the Cancer Council advises limiting or avoiding processed meats such as sausages, frankfurts, salami, bacon and ham.
Generally because they are larger, dinner sausages will contain more calories than a standard hot dog, but they also offer higher levels of protein and nutrients such as phosphorus, selenium, zinc and Vitamin B12.
Overall, bacon is lower in calories and saturated fat and by trimming visible fat you can lower this again, so from a nutritional stand bacon wins. However, as discussed all processed meats should be eaten in moderation due to their links to cancer.
Hot dogs, sausage, and bacon use the fattiest cuts of red meat, and therefore tend to be high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Bacon and sausage made with turkey or chicken might seem healthier, and they are somewhat lower in cholesterol than the red meat versions, but they're not cholesterol-free.
Bacon: Two slices of center-cut bacon contain only 57 calories and significantly less fat, sodium, and cholesterol. Whereas turkey sausage has 7 grams of fat, 522 milligrams of sodium, and 67 milligrams of cholesterol—center-cut bacon has only 4.5 grams of fat, 255 milligrams sodium, and 12 milligrams cholesterol.
Examples of ultra-processed foods include ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yogurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks including whisky, gin, and rum.
Processed meat refers to any meat that is not sold fresh – that is, it has been cured, smoked, salted, or preserved in any way. Examples include Chinese sausages, hot dogs, ham, canned meat (such as luncheon meat and corned beef), bak kwa (preserved dried pork), salted fish, anchovies, and dried shrimp.
Look at the numbers: Pork sausage has 290-455 calories and 23-38 grams of fat per link. Turkey and chicken sausage have 140-160 calories and 7-10 grams of fat for the same amount. That's hundreds of calories and fat grams dodged per link.
Bottom line: Although cheese is high in saturated fat and sodium, it is also rich in calcium and protein, and some fermented types contain probiotics. One can enjoy a modest amount of cheese as part of a healthful diet, but how it is eaten is key.
To really make your hot dogs a healthy meal, add plenty of fresh veggie toppings. Go to town chopped tomatoes, shredded cabbage, diced avocado, and chopped onions for added crunch and flavor. Or you can add some tasty heat with chopped jalapeno or banana peppers.
In Australia, we have regulations that state that at least half of all sausage content must include lean meat flesh. This can come from any part of any animal but is mostly the trimmings (or off-cuts of premium cuts like the rump or blade) of pork, beef or veal.
Eating too much bacon, sausages, hot dogs, canned meat, or lunch meat—meat that has been processed in some way to preserve or flavor it—is bad for health, according to experts. A number of studies have found links between processed meat and various forms of cancer, as well as heart disease and diabetes.
Our sausages and burger patties are 100% West Australian beef and produced fresh, daily. As a rule it is approximately 12 sausages to a kilo and we recommend around 400 sausages for a Bunnings fundraising sausage sizzle… Everyone likes a spare sausage, you can never have too many sausages. Sausage on.
Is it better to cook sausages in the oven? If you're looking for an easy, healthier way to cook sausages, baking them in a large baking dish is the way to go. It requires no additional oil and still achieves a lovely crispy skin and juicy, tender meat.
Traditionally, link sausage is stuffed into natural casings made from the intestines of animals, but artificial casings are also available on the market. These days most commercial sausages use synthetic casings.