The only red meat my 3 year old eats is bacon, albeit it is organic but I still see nitrates listed on the back of the package—argh!  He eats it about once every two weeks..

A rather disappointing post.  I think there are lot more concerns with hot dogs than just nitrites.

Oh, Michele. Once again you are my hero. Twice a year or so I buy a package of hot dogs. Then I eat them. They are magically delicious. I occasionally use MSG (and do not have any ill effects.) I am a firm believer in moderation. If I enjoy things, some is good. I think deprivation is also good in moderation. And so are hot dogs.

Ohh. I am very glad to have given up all cow since 2009!  The thing is, I never ate things like steak, or stews, etc. My choice would also be (natural ….. as if)  hot dogs ….. from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. My palate found them too salty. I would rinse and rinse and rinse. It did help. I think the hot dog roll was another huge enemy.

These days, the only animal on my plate is a bit of chicken twice a week. Maybe fish sometimes. Turkey tastes terrible in my opinion. Gamey. Even organic. Need to forgo all of it. Then what? Starve.

Truthfully …… I do not trust anything that has been slaughtered. It makes me terribly ill to think of.

For us hot-dog lovers ….. we need to find a yummy recipe to make our own tofu doggies. How difficult can it be? I have tried some brands. Once again ….. too much sodium.    

Another boo-hoo ….. I’m also about to switch over to non-gluten products. Or make my own. If possible. . Just gotta learn. So many of our foods contain gluten. No wonder so many of us are all ill.

My tummy is still upset from the toast I had this morning. Very painful.

I need to find the book  …. “Diet For A Small Planet” that was written in the late 70′s or early 80′s. Maybe I can relearn a few things. It just seems that our food supply is making us unhealthy. Or, our choices.

My concern with hot dogs isn’t the nitrites at all; when I was younger a kid in the neighborhood was convinced that they were made with beetles’ wings as a major ingredient. Didn’t stop me, though  

ABSOLUTELY! Not pushing my 6 year old to eat meat if he doesn’t want to. Find cheese and yogurt give him all the fat he needs. Along with the occasionally flax seed hidden in the pancake batter.  

Oh. I thought pig was considered white ….. not red meat.

Thankfully, we do not eat any type of pork in our household. Whew.

Think it over again Tracy S.

What do you think of this information about the correlation between Alzheimer’s & Nitrates/Nitrites: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/alzheimers-diabetes-brain
It not only involves hot dogs & other processed foods,  but alarmingly, plant based foods as well, as mentioned re mega farms – they are adding nitrates to the soil they are grown in (page 3 of article). Really horrifying!

I agree.  

When you said this:   ”So my advice is this: eat meat (of any kind) in moderation and when you do, eat the highest quality, most “natural” ones you can ”  ………. what you failed to mention is that a serving of HUMANELY raised meat – is the most “natural” option out there.  
http://www.certifiedhumane.org/index.php 

Somehow when I think “highest quality” and “most natural”, hot dogs do not come to mind.

Lol. Gary I definitely have to agree with your statement. Hot dogs are traditionally made from the scraps of the animal. I put hot dogs in the same category as bologna, spam, scrapple, and potted meat (eww!).

Yes I think someone is having a Paula Deen moment.  :)

Oh how I miss hot dogs.  And sandwich meat.  If this is right, then it’s Nathan’s for supper tomorrow!

AND SUPERMARKET CAT AND DOG FOODS………………!!

AND SUPERMARKET CAT AND DOG FOODS………………!!

Don’t lose heart – there’s more and more gluten-free products available! Even big box supermarkets carry items, as it is very recognized now. Ask the market help, and they will lead you to the aisle which has products. Granted, they are not all tasty, you have to try different ones. Amy’s Kitchen has lots of options, including pizzas, wraps, cookies & sandwich rounds. Mary’s crackers are the best. Pamela’s cookies & cake mixes. Glutino pretzels. Bob’s Redmill oats.

Marcee – I’m Gluten intolerant – which means it won’t kill me to eat gluten, however, when I do I feel ‘funky’. I become sluggish, and if I eat more than a couple bites of gluten I get body aches especially in my legs, along with a whole list of minor aliments.

I cut the gluten two years ago (except for the occasional bite of birthday cake or heavy grained artisan bread – which is what I miss the most).

Cutting out everything that has gluten is pretty overwhelming at first, but becomes somewhat easier as you go along. Many of the gluten-free recipes want you to mix several types of flours together, but I’ve found there are some pretty good mixes available out there. One of my favorites is Pamela’s Pastries. No one can tell the difference when I use this in muffins, cakes, and pancakes – in fact I think these are better with Pamela’s then regular flour.

I also use it in my bread maker, and for pizza dough, which is pretty good for these things, but do have a considerably different taste.

For making pasta’s I recommend corn noodles – I actually like the taste of these better than the wheat noodles – or spaghetti squash. Others I’ve tried either have a bad texture or a taste that is too strange for me.

I eat hamburgers with all the fixings minus the buns. I can’t resist the occasional coney dog, or a home-made polish sausage, again bun-less. I know they’re bad for me, but I reason a couple per year isn’t going to kill me.

I travel a lot and restaurant dining is one of the hardest parts of being gluten-free. Some restaurants will do substitute bread for something – for instance grits, or potato or fruit at breakfast or extra veggies for dinner – but most won’t – it is however getting better all of the time.

 Check out http://www.livingwithout.com – its a really good website for gluten-free recipes.

Thanks for clearing that up.  Your blog rocks!!

Organic beef (no pork ever) hotdogs = yummy yum! & that’s the only ‘cured’ meat I buy – or eat – & only about once a month. We do eat Frontier brands ‘Bac’uns’  soy bacon-flavoured bits, what’s the deal on those, I wonder…?

Thanks for posting about Nitrates / Nitrites. This is really interesting to me because I found that eating foods with nitrates/nitrites gives me migraines. However, I wonder if it is just the synthetic nitrates that do so. I don’t have any issues when I eat leafy vegetables and root vegetables, interesting! 

LOVE hotdogs. Gave up to switch to plant-based diet. Copious amounts of veggies showed an intolerance to nightshade veggies…causes arthritic pain.  Hotdogs are pink in part because of paprika, a hidden way people can ingest nightshades. Hotdogs rolls may contain potato starch, another hidden nightshade. FYI for people trying to conquer aches and pains beyond gluten.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=9&po=0

Read the PDF that is linked on this web page and you all will be more educated on nitrates/nitrites.

I LOVE hot dogs.  There are several farms in the area that make their own hot dogs and an organic meat shop we have in town sells their own house made hot dogs, so I steer towards those when I buy hot dogs.
Everything in moderation.

I gotta say – I love hotdogs, too!  

There is a huge difference  – in both amount and effect – of nitrates in various products, and the real difference is that the ‘natural’ nitrate you speak of is merely the natural levels in foods presented in the natural way you’d expect (as chemical groups that are an integral functional group attached to other groups in proteins, etc.). The ‘artificial’ way is when they use free floating chemical sodium nitrate (primarily, which IS considered food safe), but they use it at very high levels as a preservative. It is not the same thing AT ALL, and produces the various reaction you see people having. The issue is ‘free’ nitrites, or ‘added’ nitrites. (This is the exact same with sulfites.) 

Personally, if I eat two high nitrate hot dogs (or Subway lunch meat), I’ll be sick as a dog for at least two days. OTOH, I can eat several local artisan dogs with no added nitrates and be right as rain (there are also commercial – ballpark I think – dogs that are labelled as no nitrates added and are great). We also did find fantastic (fantastic!) no nitrates added corned beef at Whole Foods that appears near St. Patrick’s Day (we buy several for the freezer) and they work beautifully and taste even better than the nitrated verison.

”
OTOH, I can eat several local artisan dogs with no added nitrates and be right as rain (there are also commercial – ballpark I think – dogs that are labelled as no nitrates added and are great). ”

Unfortunately you are also getting a dose of antibiotics, hormones and pesticides.

Not much from the artisan dogs. And as a biologist that does human medical research, you’d be hard pressed not to be acquiring some kind of inapproporiate chemical in any meat (or most veg) products. Was it canned? Screwed. Was it frozen and kept in a plastic bag? Screwed. Was it in glass, but had a plastic lined lid? Screwed. Did it come in a butcher tray? Screwed. Beyond veg grown by a local farmer you know and purchase from sans plastic, you really can’t get away from it (and the meat situation is worse). It’s all about risk management, and certainly a couple no nitrate dogs a year is not that big a deal. Walking through the fumes of the mall parking lot on a busy day is probably more unhealthy.

Wow you’re making my case.  There is a cumulative affect.   Here are some keywords – unprocessed, organic, free-range beef, pastured pork, less sodium and saturated fat.  It all adds up.  Add those hot dogs to all those other indiscretions  Yes you can “really get away from it” to a large degree.  And each degree counts.. 

Spam is the best of all processed meats people…healthy no, delicious yes