One Pig Snout with Cancer, Please!

If the idea of eating an animal’s spleen, windpipe and tongue makes your tummy rumble, then tie a bib around your neck and open wide for an American classic—the hot dog.
 
While hot dogs are typically made from pork and beef muscle meat trimmings, the U.S. government A-OKs the use of by-products in your favorite barbeque meal, including pig snouts, cow lips and lamb spleens. But your label doesn’t tell you that, now does it?
 
Still, a new TV commercial that blasts the dogs for their contribution to an increase in diseases, like colon cancer, has some experts up in arms. The commercial features kids sitting in a school cafeteria where one little boy says, “I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer.”
 
The ad’s shock appeal may have some wiener lovers thinking twice before their next opportunity to scarf one down, but doctors and health experts, including the American Cancer Society, say the dramatization is not exactly accurate.
 
Many, in fact, are sticking to quite the opposite story, saying that the occasional hot dog is not going to increase cancer risk. Some people are also disapproving of the advertisement because it links colon cancer to children, a connection that has only been studied and found in adults. But is there such a thing as the “occasional” high-fat hot dog treat for Americans? Last year, United States consumers spent more than $4 billion on hot dogs and sausages, according to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.
 
Want to have your hot dog and live healthy too? Opt for a lean turkey or tofu dog, two choices that will keep fat and sodium—and cancer—at bay.
 
We want to know: Do you think health ads that use scare tactics are effective? If so, name one that changed the way you thought about things! [MSNBC]