as little as one hot dog a day
That still seems like a lot to me.
A hot dog a day keeps the doctors employed.
I suggest you don’t visit West Virginia…
Each year, West Virginians consume 481 hot dogs per capita, according to 24/7 Wall St. That means the average West Virginian eats more than one hot dog a day. Illinois locals love their Chicago dog, and they didn’t even come close to West Virginia’s annual hot dog consumption, hitting 317 per capita.
https://www.tastingtable.com/1887834/west-virginia-most-hot-dogs/
Coincidentally West Virginia has an obesity rate of 41%.
I feel like the west virginia statistic may be heavily biased by what a poor family might feed a child. I remember my parents using hot dogs for ‘cheap’ meat that could be doctored into meals that my picky toddler ass would eat.
West Virginia is what,the third poorest state in GDP per capita? The average there is poor, so yeah.
While I’m sure they meant a hotdog sized amount per day… yeah, thats terrible wording. When I eat hot dogs I might eat 2 or 3 at a cook out or something… then not eat hotdogs for like 3 months. They could have evoked the “amount” better. And even then… who eats that much ultra processed meat?
Think that’s about the average.
Deli meats, pizza toppings, bacon, etc.
how is bacon ultra processed meat? bacon is just part of a pig in the same way that loin or rump are. Unless US bacon is just reconstituted corn syrup like most of their stuff seems to be.
the curing process introduces carcinogenic nitrates, which is a similar risk factor, if I understand correctly
All bacon worldwide is processed meat because it’s treated to preserve shelf life.
Butcher bacon is different
I sure hope not. Sodium nitrite is one of the ‘problematic’ compounds and is used when curing meat, especially to prevent the bacteria that produces botulinum toxin from growing. While nitrites may kill you slowly, botulism can kill you much faster.
The problem with food that contains the botulism bacteria is that you don’t notice it. It doesn’t look or smell any different. Any meat that wasn’t cured using a specific minimum percentage of sodium nitrite is not to be trusted.
They use fewer chemicals but it’s still processed and still carcinogenic.
Tell us how it’s processed. You seem to know a lot about it.
The real difference in butcher bacon is that they get the better cut of meat. The cheaper cut goes into the sliced packages for grocery stores.
It’s cured and smoked.
The hot dog was supposed to be an example. A more common one is lunch meat, which some people do eat every day.
Fair point. My kid eats a lot of turkey sandwiches.
Anyone know the conversion rate of turkey slices to hotdogs?
Well if you roll up a Turkey slice its about the same size? Hard to say though, it varies by brand and region. Most of this stuff doesnt apply outside the US as much either as food standards tend to be very low in the states.
For as little as one hot dog a day, you could save this person from diabetes
hello my name is Guy Who Eats 365 Hot Dogs Per Year, I’m here for chest pain
It’s also important to note that the studies included in the analysis were observational, meaning that the data can only show an association between eating habits and disease –– not prove that what people ate caused the disease
I think that if you know a person who eats a hot dog every day, you will have many other reasons to suspect that they’re unhealthy.
The hot dog was an example, lunch meat is also processed and plenty of people eat a sandwich every day.
Isn’t pasta also ultra processed? Bread?.. Butter? CHEESE? Isn’t everything ultra processed? Even beans if they have been dried and canned?
Bread and pasta can be for sure. There are variations in how flour is made for example. Butter and cheese are unhealthy types of fats, they are unhealthy for other reasons. Moderation is important, and a varied diet.
I’m an autistic fucker with food problems I think I’m just gonna have to die
Eh they’re mostly water and sawdust.
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right. that’s just about any food study! it’s the trouble with the nutrition field in general
Sometimes they can control for known variables. I don’t think they did it in this case
Everyone who has ever eaten a hot dog will die
studies show that 100% of people who drink water will also die.
I don’t have a problem. I can stop drinking water whenever I want to.
I need to stop oxygen…everyone who has it dies.
See, that’s the addiction talking. Seek help.
It’s easy to quit drinking water. I do it several times a day.
That’s why I only drink Mtn Dew
When?
Yup
I’m not a nutritional epidemiologist.
But I’ve started to get into learning about it in the last few months.
It’s really starting to feel like this is a giant bullshit field, and as much as they are trying to find useful results, there’s something severely wrong with how they seem to arbitrarily assign causality and correlation.
In a contrived example: “People who live near power lines have more cancer” - “No, poor people live near power lines because they’re poor, and poor people have more cancer”
What are the kind of people that eat processed hot dogs? I can promise you they are not millionaires. I can promise you it’s not people who can afford filet mignon but decide to have a steamed hot dog. It’s not people who work out and take care of their bodies. It’s not people who cook.
So when a study is done like this, what answer are you actually getting? probably finding out that the type of people who eat processed meat are more prone to these conditions for a variety of considerations that are just totally left out of the analysis.
Well, you’re right and I’m surprised I’ve never thought of this before.
The EMF from power lines was a real mind virus that went around when I was a teenager!
I’ve been alive too long and have seen this pattern play out again, and again, and again. Feeling a little sad right now, actually.
For another example: all my life the common sense accepted wisdom, supported by real dermatologists was that to keep the likelihood of skin cancer to a minimum there is zero known healthy level of sun exposure. Well that’s all out the f’king window in 2025 because we now know the deleterious effects of insufficient sun exposure are vastly more severe compared to an increased morbidity for types of skin cancer.
I don’t want to be mr critical, but… there’s something wrong in our whole approach to these “studies” and I don’t know what fixes it. Any experts wanna help describe what I’m getting at with the right technical language?
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Basically: wanna live healthy and forever? Just become a billionaire! If you don’t want to live healthy then I guess that’s your choice to make.
We have collectively forgotten that correlation != causation
I actually don’t think it’s possible to forget. In the sense that pattern recognition and chain-of-event are thought structures baked into our very beings. We don’t intuit that most things are random in a greater sense, and probabilistic on a finer resolution. We’re always looking for self-satisfying, singular paths of causality and they don’t exist.
Touch red hot metal burn skin; Stab self in face make self not alive. A necessary abbreviated thought structure essential to human survival.
Extend that perspective to eat ween get beetus. Wait.
What is the field of nutritional epidemiology hoping to accomplish by obsessively searching for links (their magic word) between disease and dietary intake? It assumes, by the very nature of the question, that there is a direct causal relationship between diet & illness. There can’t be. Any sufficiently complicated system of interrelationships is going to have massive amounts of turbulence and chaos!
Yes, poor people eat poor quality food more often but the food is bad either way.
Here’s a good tip, look at allllll of the specific foods that a doctor would tell a pregnant person to avoid. Non-pregnant people should also avoid them, and processed meats have been on that list for a long time.
that’s not true. pregnant people are told to stay away from sushi because of immunity with raw fish. you should also not eat papaya while pregnant because it can cause premature contractions. you’re making a very broad generalization that the recommendation to pregnant people is completely nutrition based, but there’s many factors when growing a life inside you.
like in early pregnancy, you eat foods high in choline. that’s not because foods low in choline are bad for you, but because during early fetal development, choline builds neural tubes
Sure there are exceptions. You haven’t made any point about whether processed meats cause poor health outcomes though. They do, and its been shown over and over again, but people don’t like someone telling them they have bad habits.
that’s not the point i was addressing in my comment though, i agree processed foods a very bad. and poorer people are more likely to eat them. there’s no debate there from me.
i was only addressing your broad generalization of looking at all food doctors recommend for pregnant people to avoid. while it does include lots of bad and unhealthy foods, these recommendations also include foods that are directly related to fetal development, hormone changes, etc
Yeah I was being overly broad but its a good starting point still when looking to cut out unhealthy foods. People seem to understand why pregnant people shouldnt smoke or drink, I just think they should consider the foods they shouldnt eat either and why.
Try to follow the thrust of the conversation.
“As little as one hot dog a day”, doesn’t really strike me as a great example of a “small” amount of processed meat. I’d generally say I ate a lot of something if I had it literally on a daily basis.
Totally agree on hotdogs, but if someone ate a slice of standard toast for breakfast every day I wouldn’t say they ate a lot of toast.
Point being, I don’t think the frequency can be considered independent of the thing.They maybe could have phrased it better as “consumption of as little as 2 ounces of processed meat, about one hotdog, a day…”.
A hotdog is a relatable unit of measure for an amount of food, but a hotdog a day isn’t normal. A hotdog one day, a deli sandwich the next, and so one though isn’t preposterous.…constantly fails the engineering exam… …constantly eats roast beef…
I love Red Dwarf so much.
Smoke me a (non-processed) kipper, I’ll be back for
cancerbreakfast!
sorry but one hotdog a day is not a small nor moderate amount.
Right lol that’s an insane amount of hot dogs
Every few trips to Costco already seems too often, but it is delicious.
What I liked was their phrasing: “people who ate as little as one hot dog a day”
I’m assuming it’s just the average though, I generally ingest my 7 hotdogs for Monday morning breakfast, and then eat healthy the rest of the week.
One hotdog a day is little compared to the 30+ hot dogs day they are force feeding those poor albino rats.
There are plenty of toddlers who’d disagree with you
7% increase of an already small chance in exchange for 1 hotdog/day doesn’t sound that bad to me.
It never seems that bad unless you’re in that small percent. Cancer’s a damned awful way to die.
Sure but there are a ton of things, genetic, environmental, dietary, neurochemical, etc. that can contribute to the development of cancer. You can do literally everything right and end up in the exact same place as someone who did all the wrong things because the causes are innumerable and many are literally unavoidable.
Would I regret my choices if I got cancer after I did all the things the studies say would increase my odds? Of course I would. Would I regret my choices if did everything “right” and still got cancer? Of course I would. But that’s because being in that position inherently biased you against your past. If I did all the wrong things I would regret that I indulged too much, and if I did all the right things I would regret that I never really indulged at all and enjoyed life fully. Either way you got shafted. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
But to me it’s better to just live intentionally but without having this constant concern about every single thing I eat, drink, or breath maybe, possibly, eventually contributing to developing cancer. Like I’m not about to start smoking, I rarely drink, I try to eat enough veggies, etc. because those things have much more tangible direct consequences that I’m mindful of, and I’m not about to eat a hotdog every day mostly because I’m a really good cook and that sounds sad as fuck. But the next time I do eat a hotdog, a salami, or a Reuben sandwich, I promise you that no part of my mind is going to be worrying that it will give me cancer. Constant dread is its own form of cancer and life’s too short and uncertain to live with that shit 24/7.
Well said.
Words to live by. Well put.
I know these things logically. I wish I could embed them more emphatically so that articles like this don’t kick up my anxiety the way they do. Thanks for putting this comment to remind me to come down from the ledge of needless dread and worry.
Worrying too much causes cancer
Let’s begin by reading the article, and noting this key sentence: "“Habitual consumption of even small amounts of processed meat, sugary drinks, and trans fatty acids is linked to increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease and colorectal cancer,” said lead author of the study, Dr. Demewoz Haile, a research scientist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. "
Health effects associated with consumption of processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages and trans fatty acids: a Burden of Proof study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03775-8#author-information
Abstract
Previous research suggests detrimental health effects associated with consuming processed foods, including processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and trans fatty acids (TFAs). However, systematic characterization of the dose–response relationships between these foods and health outcomes is limited. Here, using Burden of Proof meta-regression methods, we evaluated the associations between processed meat, SSBs and TFAs and three chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease (IHD) and colorectal cancer. We conservatively estimated that—relative to zero consumption—consuming processed meat (at 0.6–57 g d−1) was associated with at least an 11% average increase in type 2 diabetes risk and a 7% (at 0.78–55 g d−1) increase in colorectal cancer risk. SSB intake (at 1.5–390 g d−1) was associated with at least an 8% average increase in type 2 diabetes risk and a 2% (at 0–365 g d−1) increase in IHD risk. TFA consumption (at 0.25–2.56% of daily energy intake) was associated with at least a 3% average increase in IHD risk. These associations each received two-star ratings reflecting weak relationships or inconsistent input evidence, highlighting both the need for further research and—given the high burden of these chronic diseases—the merit of continuing to recommend limiting consumption of these foods.
Then I hit a paywall. Anyone got a ladder?
One of us is gonna have to email one of the authors to ask for a copy. I’ve read that they want the public to read their work and that the paywall is just like a default setting.
Considering humans have been eating processed meats like these for centuries, I think I’ll take my chances.
And our rates of intestinal cancer have been rising steadily to the point where now it’s a common killer, so we’ve become afraid of it in our quest to live long, pain-free lives.
Things change as we learn. Why we don’t use lead in our pipes anymore. Safe, biocompatible plastic only.
If the rates have been rising, wouldn’t that prove it’s not processed meats like these? It would be something that’s being introduced at a steady rate lately, not something that’s been around for centuries.
It is likely many factors at once but it’s also important not to assume causation where there is a correlation. Keep in mind also our mechanism of detection is better now than it’s ever been.
Nitrites have being slowly “introduced” at a steady rate lately
If the problem is nitrites, then the problem is not processed meats, it’s nitrites. Therefore, the headline is wrong. Kinda like the problem with making hats was not making hats, but mercury exposure.
But
Nitrites are an important component in seasoned and processed meat as a stabiliser and relatively important ingredient.
And I know you love carchuterie or salami or whatever other kind of seasoned or processed meat there is because there’s always a lot of it in every supermaket, as much as vegetable and relatively more than lean chicken breast and meat.
When we take these as an example we mean that this kind of meat is on average worse than others. Not that red meat on its own is also that much better.
Our ancestors used to have one or two portions of meat weekly because they farmed it themselves, that’all they had, and we have portion of meat daily in what we call western diet. We can’t keep up with the mediterranean diet and the okinawa diet without understanding the basics of these.
Also, the environmental impact of this product is high.
Yeah, but I think I’ll take 60 years of eating really tasty meats and foods at the risk of slightly increasing my chance of getting cancer and dying at like 65 instead of 85.
But it’s also about quality of life; do you want the last decade to be in increasing pain with challenged mobility or not as bad?
Nitrites only date back to the middle of the 19th century.
We’ve been smoking, salting, and otherwise preserving meat for way longer than that, though. People usually died off from other things before cancer got them, that’s all. The relatively high number of cancer deaths is a product of medical intervention getting so good and so widespread that we don’t regularly die of sepsis from stepping on a splinter or catching communicable disease anymore.
Absolutely, fuck cancer. But cancer went from being a minor concern to a relatively common one because we conquered so many other avenues of death, systematically and carefully, until we’re down to time, neglect and negligence as the three main ways humanity gets itself to the Reaper.
Isolated as a pure salt, maybe. All those “uncured” varieties listing celery as an ingredient are making use of the same compound though.
Yeah, I try not to make it my entire diet, but… no pepperoni? Why live?
Dang, you mean to tell me that animal refuse blended into mush and saturated with salt is bad for us?!
Eh, “refuse” makes sausage sound worse than it is. In the modern world anyplace with a food inspection system will typically see sausage made from cuts of meat that are perfectly edible but don’t meet the grading standards likely to sell on the shelf , or the excess pieces of muscle left over after breaking primal cuts down into smaller pieces. No one wants to buy USDA certified Meh grade steak, or a palm sized wedge of uneven thickness. So they get sent off to make hamburger, sausage, and various canned or commercial meat products that don’t need to be pretty.
Processed meat also includes much more benign seeming foods, like sandwich meat, ground meats, and bacon. We’ve known for a while that eating meat, and more so red meat, is a risk for colon problems. Red meats are more likely to be processed and therefore cheap and salty.
The new thing the study adds is that there isn’t a lower bound. For a lot of things there’s a quantity that isn’t associated with any issues, and it’s only when you go above that limit that the risk goes up.
Truth.
Yesterday I opened a huge bung of ground beef that I got from Costco.
Fried up 1/3 of it up and when I tasted it… Damn that’s f’kking bottom round roast beef 😋
One of the other interesting things in the US is that different states can have different laws for meat standards, as long as they meet or exceed USDA minimums. They can’t, however, advertising that fact because it’s a violation of interstate trade.
So in the US, a legal hotdog ranges from a blend of the trimmings above and what can be removed from the bone with a power washer, up to “hot dogs must be made only of the product of primal cuts with no trimmings or waste meat”.I’m going to design and print a shirt that simply says
“Legal hotdog”
Refuse? Why do you think processed meat is animal refuse?
Jokes on them. I do tons of unsafe shit, and probably only one of those things is going to kill me. There will be no accountability for 99.9% of the bad behavior, including unregulated hotdog intake. Suckers.
For me, it’s about the quality of life before I die, not which shitty thing I’m willingly doing to my body that ends up “winning”.
Didn’t think it needed the /s, but maybe it always needs the /s
publishing this article three days before independance day is terrorism
edit: two days. Somehow I thought the fourth of july was on the fifth.
i usually use a little mnemonic device to remember exact dates for holidays. for fourth of July i try to match the last word with the month of the year and the first word with the day of the month.
There is no where safe from fascists and ICE right now so I’m gonna eat all the processed meat I want dammit. If it gets much worse I’m gonna take up smoking and drinking again too, since I’ll definitely fuck up and get exiled or worse for opposing all of this shit. On a related note, are there any good sources for quality FUCK ICE magnets and bumper stickers?
No no, you’ve got it backwards. Give THEM the processed meat
This is the way.
Don’t make their job easier for them. Fuck them! Health is wealth.
The state need not kill those that killing themselves
Don’t make it an easy job for 'em
The killing of kids with £2 chicken and chips
Is a tactic of war, waged on the poor
Can’t save wages on slave wages
And you don’t think fresh fruit with your face on the floor
Nah, you need money for the kids
Rent and light plus food in the fridge
But that last box can be the hardest tick
'Cause scraps will suffice but they might make you sick
As a child I used to chow take out
Twenty-four hours later skin break out
Felt so heavy with it sitting in my belly
Dessert was a sugar coated candy jelly
Fam that’s pig meat. Mashing up the kidney
Make sure no government has to kill me
I was killing myself till I realised danger
Brain, heart, liver and lungs can hit failure
Now season daal and veg with fresh herbs
Cut caffeine because it messed with nerves
Plenty lentils and chickpea curry
20 minute meal for a man in a hurry
That’s real fast food that won’t break the bank
With enough nutrients to fill the tank
Drink water for the body’s natural power
But water from taps can taste sour
Food deserts are designed to starve us
No fresh produce but we’ve got Starbucks
Calories packed in treats to enlarge us
May not see the effects but the heart does
Can’t breathe, can’t sleep, can’t run
Casomorphin wreaks havoc on the lungs
Just like fizzy wreaks havoc on the gums
And my old man said diabetes ain’t fun
Ginger root is good for the youts
Blend it up and share a fresh juice
Burn sage, cleanse the room
Body is a temple, don’t let it be a tomb
The food you choose to consume can damage
Processed meats intestines can’t manage
Cattle farming still killing off the planet
And it tells us everyday that it can’t stand it
Earth getting hotter while the sea levels rise
All because you want burger with those fries
All because you want milkshake with the meal
Then to combat diarrhoea you take pills
What’s the deal? Eat right, stay active
Stay strong 'cause the revolution is real
Never know when a man might have to dash
And a pig can’t kill what a pig can’t catch
It’s more than just eating right, it’s survival
Rasta man tell the youts eat Ital
Daily exercise, fresh air is vital
Whether you short walk, run or take cycle
Meditate to live life and love it
Plus stress increases acid in stomachs
Read and chill to keep the mental covered
And when you find struggle, try rise above it
I find peace in the books on the shelf
Food on the stove while it cooks I can smell
It’s gonna be good by the looks I can tell
And it won’t put my body through hell, well
Well, I want strength like Phelps
Good practises and discipline helps
Not for the six-pack, I do it for myself
'Cause it’s true what they say your health is wealth
Be healthy, be strong, alright
Oh by the way, remember you are a gift to yourself and a gift to your environment
Continue to be that beautiful gift
Share that gift in your food, and all your gastronomic masteryLentils and chickpeas are so good and cheap.
You do you my man, it’s just that you would definitely make your life much more sufferable if you had given your organism the better sort of fuel
Magnets and stickers aren’t significantly better than thoughts and prayers, but cost more.
Ya well in the 70s and 80s this was what we as kids were given to eat.
I’m paying for that now
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