Why are hotdogs so popular in the US?<\/p>\n
The hotdog is a culinary icon, deeply embedded in US history and culture.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s a trip to the ballpark without a frank in a bun, smothered in mustard and sauerkraut? (Your choice of toppings may vary, depending on where you live<\/a>.) Or a backyard cookout without a dozen hotdogs sizzling on the grill? During summer, Americans scarf down about 7bn of them, including 150m on the Fourth of July alone, says Eric Mittenthal, president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n Annually, Americans eat 20bn of them, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cHotdogs grew up alongside America itself,\u201d Mittenthal says. \u201cBrought over by European immigrants, they spread across the country and evolved region by region, taking on local character and tradition along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n Consumers are drawn to hotdogs because they ignite the brain\u2019s \u201creward\u201d system \u2013 that is, those regions and pathways in the brain that drive how we experience pleasure, says Julia Zumpano<\/a>, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic.<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans like them because they are convenient and easy, and hyper-palatable because they taste salty and fatty,\u201d she says. \u201cWe get a big cascade of pleasure eating them. They hit the pleasure centers in our brains. It\u2019s hard to not eat them and it\u2019s hard to stop eating them.\u201d<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget the add-ons: the bun, mustard, relish, ketchup, sauerkraut or onions. These pile on more flavor, as well as salt, sugar and refined white flour. \u201cMost of the time, people don\u2019t eat hotdogs naked,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Are hotdogs healthy?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, health and dietary experts view hotdogs as nutritional timebombs.<\/p>\n \u201cAre hotdogs harmful? Are you kidding me?\u201d says Michael Jacobson<\/a>, a food scientist, retired longtime executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and more recently founder of the National Food Museum<\/a>. \u201cThey are among the worst foods you can eat if you eat them often. Once in a while is OK, but eating them on a regular basis is a very bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Hotdogs are an ultra-processed food<\/a>. They are typically made from trimmings, or the leftover scraps after prime cuts are prepared, from such meats as beef and pork.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are highly processed \u2026 and high in sodium and saturated fats,\u201d says Zumpano. \u201cThere may be some protein, but for the most part, there\u2019s nothing good in them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultra-processed foods \u2013 especially those high in sodium, saturated fat and sugar \u2013 have been linked to heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cancer and dementia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared processed meat a human carcinogen associated with colorectal cancer and possible links to pancreatic, prostate and breast cancers, says Dr Donald Hensrud, a nutritional specialist at the Mayo Clinic, citing data<\/a> from WHO\u2019s International Agency for Research on Cancer. \u201cApproximately 2 ounces of processed meat daily will increase the risk of colorectal cancer by almost 20%,\u201d he says. Hotdogs are typically sold eight or 10 in a one-pound package<\/a>, meaning a typical hotdog weighs 1.6\u20132 ounces.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Well Actually<\/p>\n Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) allows hotdog manufacturers to add mechanically separated chicken, a paste-like poultry product made by forcing bones with attached meat through a high-pressure sieve that pulls the edible meat tissue from the bones, creating a finely ground paste-like consistency. (This USDA rule prompted Zinsser\u2019s article.)<\/p>\n Hotdogs also contain preservatives like sodium erythorbate \u2013 a chemical that speeds up curing and preserves the \u201cpink\u201d color \u2013 and sodium nitrite, which prevents bacterial growth and also helps maintain color.<\/p>\n WHO\u2019s international cancer research agency has deemed <\/a>the substances formed when sodium nitrite is ingested \u201cprobably carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in humans\u201d. Nitrites combine with the amines (nitrogen-containing organic compounds derived from ammonia) present in cured meats to form nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic. Nitrosamines form when the meat containing these two substances is cooked at high temperatures \u2013 grilling hotdogs, for example \u2013 or during the body\u2019s digestive processes.<\/p>\n Mittenthal, an industry spokesperson, insists that hotdogs \u201care produced with the same nutrient-dense meat found in steaks and roasts\u201d, and offer complete proteins and \u201cimportant nutrients which are often under-consumed in the United States \u2013 such as vitamin B12, heme iron (a highly absorbable form of iron found only in animal-based foods) and zinc\u201d. He points out that vegetables contain nitrates, which are converted into nitrites in the body. However, vegetables also contain protective nutrients<\/a>, such as antioxidants, which reduce the formation of nitrosamines and thus pose much less of a cancer risk.<\/p>\n Are there safer alternatives?<\/p>\n Nitrite-free hotdogs are often available. These may be made of chicken or turkey, or vegetarian ingredients, and may be somewhat healthier than beef or pork \u2013 but consumers should not consider them healthy, experts say.<\/p>\n \u201cPoultry dogs are better, but most brands contain celery powder or celery juice, which convert to nitrites \u2013 and then to nitrosamines \u2013 in the body,\u201d Jacobson says. \u201cAnd of course, even those hotdogs are ultra-processed, another indication of potential harm.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to veggie dogs, or turkey or chicken hotdogs, they may be lower in saturated fat or sodium, but it\u2019s still processed food,\u201d Zumpano agrees. \u201cSome of these negatives are eliminated, but that doesn\u2019t make them healthier options. A grilled chicken breast is better \u2013 way better.\u201d<\/p>\n Is having a hotdog on the Fourth of July OK?<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t forgo them entirely, most nutrition experts recommend eating hotdogs only once in a while. \u201cHow many hotdogs people eat will influence health risks much more than the healthfulness of the particular hotdog,\u201d Hensrud says. \u201cIn other words, having a hotdog that is not that healthy once a year on July 4 has less health risks than consuming healthier hotdogs more frequently.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobson agrees. \u201cYou could eat anything once in a while, including a hotdog and a sugary drink,\u201d he says. \u201cMy wife eats one hotdog a year and has survived.\u201d<\/p>\n When his patients ask about hotdogs, Hensrud doesn\u2019t tell them what they should or shouldn\u2019t eat, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI approach this as I do with other discretionary dietary items, such as ice-cream, red meat and alcohol,\u201d he says. \u201cThe more someone eats hotdogs, the greater the risk. I don\u2019t tell people what to do \u2013 I provide them with information and let them decide. If someone is going to eat a hotdog on July 4, or only once in a while, enjoy it, but continue to try and eat healthy overall.\u201d<\/p>\n So eat a hotdog at your neighbor\u2019s cookout if you must, but don\u2019t overdo it. Or opt for a hamburger, \u201cwhich probably is a better choice\u201d, Zumpano says. Even better: \u201cBring a healthy dish to share that you like and eat that instead.\u201d<\/p>\n This article was amended on 1 July 2025 to clarify that Americans eat 20bn hotdogs annually, not 50bn as a previous version incorrectly stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1969, the late writer William Zinsser toured a hotdog factory and described his visit in Life magazine,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[103,61,60,446],"class_list":["post-528685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782330911_688_500.jpg\")
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