Up to 80 percent of the calories in regular hot dogs come from fat, and much of it is the unhealthy saturated type. Regularly eating processed meats like hot dogs has been linked to increased risk of heart disease and colon cancer.
The Bottom Line: All cured meats (hot dogs, bacon, bologna, corned beef) contain nitrites and/or nitrates, and whether they are added as synthetic chemicals or as naturally occurring in celery juice and other plants, the combination of process meats and nitrites/nitrates leads to an increase in colon cancer.
Ball Park Prime Uncured Beef Franks
"Each hot dog has 710 milligrams of sodium, which is 35% of the daily recommended amount of 2,000-milligram daily," says Wan Na Chun, MPH, RD. "They're also high in saturated fat, which can raise LDL cholesterol levels."
Even just one hot dog can be hazardous to your health. Eating a hot dog takes away 36 minutes of healthy life (good-quality and disease-free life) according to a recent study that evaluated more than 5,800 foods and ranked them by their nutritional disease burden.
Take the example of a person eating one jumbo hot dog a day, every day. The fact that his risk for colorectal cancer is 36% higher than someone who doesn't eat processed meat is a real cause for concern. But note that a 36% increase, while substantial, is not anywhere near the risk associated with cigarette smoking.
The protein in hot dogs is a complete protein, meaning it offers all the essential amino acids our bodies need. Hot dogs are also a great source of Vitamin B12 with just one hot dog providing 30 percent of the DV.
Katie Jordanhazy, a registered dietitian with Novant Health in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told Newsweek that despite people loving to put specific numbers on things "there really is no exact number of hot dogs to eat per year."
“I think if you're eating hot dogs in a Joey-type of way, this could be a turning point in your life to maybe cut back a little bit,” registered dietician Christy Brissette told ABC Chicago. “If you enjoy a hot dog once in awhile, completely fine.
While you shouldn't have a traditional ballpark hot dog every day, having one once in a while is probably OK. And there are a lot of other great end-of-summer options.
THE WINNER
From an overall perspective, the hamburger is a better option. A 4-ounce hamburger has about six times the amount of protein as a hot dog, with about a quarter of the sodium. Nutritionally, that's a better balance.
NxStage Kidney Care reports that you can reduce up to 60% of the sodium in hot dogs by boiling them in water for 7 minutes. One hot dog can contain more than 500 mg of sodium. A 60% reduction would bring one hot dog's sodium count down to 200 mg, a number that may work for many low sodium diets.
From a calorie standpoint, the hot dog is the winner, but from an overall perspective, the hamburger is a better option. The 4-ounce hamburger has about six times the amount of protein as a hot dog, but about a quarter of the sodium. Nutritionally, that's a better bargain.
AICR defines processed meat as: “meat preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or addition of chemical preservatives.” Ham, bacon, pastrami, sausages, hot dogs and cold cuts are all considered processed meat.
Hot dogs, sausage, salami, and lunch meat are the worst types of meats for your heart. They have high amounts of salt, and most are high in saturated fat. When it comes to deli meats, turkey is better for you than salami because it doesn't have the saturated fat.
While one hot dog only has 150 calories and the same amount of sodium as a Kielbasa (nearly 600 milligrams), it has 3 more grams more of fat per serving and doesn't have as much protein (only 10 grams).
With more calories, comes higher fat and protein values
Based on fat content alone, bacon is the healthier option.
Other indications of a higher-quality hot dog are if they're uncured and nitrate- and nitrite-free, and have minimal ingredients. “Overall, uncured chicken or turkey hot dogs would be a better option, because they're usually lower in saturated fat and less processed than beef,” Avena said.
They figured out that for every hot dog we eat, it takes away about 36 minutes. It's MORNING EDITION. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future.
Soft drinks (such as coca cola) shortened life by 12 minutes, bacon by six minutes and each double cheeseburger devoured shaved off just under nine minutes. The research also revealed that even a portion of cheese eaten can take over a minute off a healthy lifespan.
This kind of summary statistic is so simplistic as to be actively misleading. There is no medically observable effect of eating a single hot dog, and even if there were, that physical effect couldn't be quantified in terms of minutes taken off your life.
The countries which recorded the highest sausage consumption per capita in 2021 were Germany with a per capita consumption of 21kg per person and following Germany was the Czech Republic with a per capita consumption of 19kg per person.
Hot dogs are made from the emulsified meat trimmings of chicken, beef, or pork. This meat mixture is blended with other ingredients (like preservatives, spices, and coloring) into a batter-like substance.