Are hot dogs as bad as cigarettes?

Published : Jul 29, 2011 - 14:50 Updated : Jul 29, 2011 - 20:52

Eating hot dogs may be as hazardous to one’s health as smoking cigarettes, according to civil activists in the United States.

Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, center right, wins the first Nathan's Famous Women's Hot Dog Eating World Championship after consuming 40 hot dogs and buns, Monday, July 4, 2011, Monday, July 4, 2011, at Coney Island, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP-Yonhap News)

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., launched an advertisement near Indianapolis Motor Speedway that reads “Warning: hot dogs can wreck your health.”

Passers-by may mistake the sign as yet another antismoking advertisement at just a glance, as it depicts a cigarette packet filled with sausages.

The logic behind this disputed warning is the fact that consuming one 50 gram serving of processed meat on daily basis may increase the chance of colorectal cancer by 21 percent, as revealed by American Institute for Cancer Research.

This amount equals one hot dog, the PCRM said. Other potential health problems included in the popular fast food are diabetes, heart disease and other types of cancer, it added.

“A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave,” Susan Levin, PCRM’s nutrition education director, said via the organization’s webpage.

"Like cigarettes, hot dogs should come with a warning label that helps racing fans and other consumers understand the health risk.”

By Kang Yoon-seung
(koreacolin@gmail.com)
Intern reporter
Edited by Rob York

<한글 요약>

핫도그 담배보다 더 위험

미국의 한 시민단체가 “경고, 핫도그는 건강을 망칠 수 있습니다” 라는 문구와 함께 담배 곽 안에 소시지가 담겨 있는 광고를 고속도로변에 세웠다.

수도 워싱턴 DC에 본부가 있는 “책임 있는 의료를 위한 의사 협회 (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)”는 핫도그 등 가공 육류에 담긴 건강상 위험 요소가 담배와 비슷하다고 주장하고 나선 것이다.

하루에 핫도그 한 개 분량인 50 그램의 가공 육류를 섭취한다면, 결장암이 발병할 확률이 21% 증가하는 것으로 나타난 미국 암 학회 등의 연구를 근거로 하며, 이 단체는 핫도그 섭취가 당뇨병, 심장병 등 다른 질병으로도 이어질 수 있다고 경고했다.

PCRM의 한 관계자는 아예 담배와 마찬가지로 핫도그도 경고 문구를 붙여야 한다고 주장했다.