A LINK BETWEEN SAUSAGE AND CANCER?

The number of vegetarian Americans has skyrocketed in recent years, rising from fewer than 300,000 in 2004 to more than 9.7 million today. But don’t think that means we don’t love meat: As a percentage of the U.S. population, the share of people describing themselves as vegetarian or vegan hovers just under 3%. Americans, in fact, rank number one in the world in terms of meat consumption, consuming almost 220 pounds per capita per year. Chicken accounts for nearly half of that amount, but sausage is also high on the list: Americans spend close to $8 billion per year on hot dogs and other sausages. On July 4th alone we consume 150 million hot dogs— enough to stretch more than five times the distance from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. But should we be eating sausage at all? Sausage is full of salt and fat, the latter sometimes accounting for more than 30% of the total ingredients. Both have been linked to a higher risk of cancer. Sausage makers also use nitrites and nitrates as chemical preservatives, and these can be converted in the body to cancer-causing compounds. The same can be said of heme, a red pigment that’s sometimes added. So experts say: If you must have sausage, choose freshly made and check the list of ingredients, which should be as short as possible.