The Los Angeles Times reports that the nonprofit Cancer Project, a vegan advocacy group, has filed a suit in New Jersey asking that the courts force three hot dog manufacturers to put cancer warning labels on their frankfurters.
The label would say: "Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."
"Just as tobacco causes lung cancer, processed meats are linked to colon cancer," Neal Barnard, president of the Cancer Project and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University medical school, tells the paper. "Companies that sell hot dogs are well aware of the danger, and their customers deserve the same information."
Not everyone in the nutrition community agrees.
"If one were to call for a 'black label' on frankfurters, where should the warning label end? If we were to evaluate each food for its naturally occurring toxins and eliminate that food, then our food plate would be empty," Roger Clemens, a nutrition expert at USC's pharmacy school, tells the Times.
The label would say: "Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."
"Just as tobacco causes lung cancer, processed meats are linked to colon cancer," Neal Barnard, president of the Cancer Project and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University medical school, tells the paper. "Companies that sell hot dogs are well aware of the danger, and their customers deserve the same information."
Not everyone in the nutrition community agrees.
"If one were to call for a 'black label' on frankfurters, where should the warning label end? If we were to evaluate each food for its naturally occurring toxins and eliminate that food, then our food plate would be empty," Roger Clemens, a nutrition expert at USC's pharmacy school, tells the Times.
- KC's View:
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I particularly like the reaction of one consumer interviewed by the Times, who said that “vegans complaining about hot dogs is like the Amish complaining about gas prices.”
Next thing you know, people are going to demand that hot dogs have a label saying that they may actually contain meat.
(We kid because we love.)
