The Hotdog Kid

“Can we eat these at home?” - young girl asking her vegetarian parents after discovering hotdogs at a church event

Years ago, when I met with a nutritionist to lose weight, one food that was banned from my diet was hotdogs. A starchy roll with processed meat & chemicals that supplies one-third of your daily fat, and nearly half your daily sugar/carbs. [dietfact.com] Yet there is no denying that Americans, especially children, love them. My older sister, (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) went through a phase where she refused to eat anything but hotdogs and earned the nickname “Hotdog Kid” from our grandfather.

Nearly every meat-eating culture in the world has invented some form of sausage to use meat scraps. So, while it is no easy task discovering the origin of hotdogs, it may be safe to give credit to the Germans/Austrians. The city of Vienna claims the Wienerwurst or Viennese sausage, the city of Frankfurt takes credit for the Frankfurter Wurst (1480), and a Bavarian butcher is said to have invented the "dachshund" or "little-dog" sausage. German immigrant, Charles Feltman, began selling sausages in rolls on Coney Island around 1870. [Wikipedia]

To my surprise, the top vendor of hot dogs is 7-Eleven with 100 million sold annually in North America. Or you can go upscale and find turkey dogs, chicken dogs, tofu dogs, wild boar sausages, etc. Last weekend we purchased some hotdog shaped venison & garlic sausages in sheep casing. On the rare event we do buy “hotdogs” for our home, my wife prefers the flavor and quality of kosher all-beef franks from Hebrew National. I still love their commercial of Uncle Sam looking at a hot dog with filler and then looking upwards when the announcer states that Hebrew National answers to “a higher authority”.

Bottom Line

Most hotdogs (as opposed to sausages) are precooked and can be eaten cold if not spoiled. Many doctors recommend that pregnant women heat hot dogs (and other pre-cooked, pre-packaged foods) to 160-170°F (70-77°C) for at least two minutes before consuming to reduce the chance of contracting Listeriosis (caused by a rare bacterium that can thrive at refrigerator temperatures) which can affect unborn children or even cause miscarriage or still birth. [Wikipedia]

For fun facts and fun places to eat hotdogs, check out the PBS documentary, A Hot Dog Program.

Insect Bites

Itchy itchy scratchy scratchy, ooh I got one down my backy! – camp song

When our Cub Pack needed to enter a woody area to search for insects, the boys objected, “We can’t go in the woods. We might get ticks.” Scouting was founded over a hundred years ago to teach wilderness survival skills to clueless young boys from the cities. Now it seems the youth have gone from clueless to terrified of the great outdoors.

With picnic season resuming, families will venture (timidly?) outdoors once more and may, quite likely, encounter insects bites and stings. The advice used to be that you had nothing to worry about if you weren’t allergic to bee stings, etc. Today with West Nile Virus and Lyme disease the story is more complicated.

• West Nile Virus killed 44 people in 2008 (mostly adults over 50, rarely children) with some 2000 reported infections. A person is 1000 times more likely to die from the flu (36,000 deaths). So while “safe”, it’s no fun being bitten by a mosquito. Simple precautions include long pants and shirt sleeves and the use of insect repellant like DEET. The FDA recommends keeping kids' nails short so they don’t break the skin when scratching bug bites. A scratch with dirty nails could lead to a bacterial infection that will require treatment with antibiotics.
  
• Lyme disease is more common with 27,000 cases reported in 2007. Death is “rare” and I could find no numbers online for anyone killed. Lyme disease is easily treated with antibiotics if caught in the early stages but untreated can lead to extreme fatigue, joint or muscle pain, facial paralysis, heart damage, psychological disturbances, stomach problems, neurological disorders, blindness, and deafness. My wife and I and our dogs have all had Lyme. We spotted the bulls-eye shaped rash around the bite and took the antibiotics. We also ask for Lyme testing along with the traditional blood tests when we get a physical.

Lyme can also be prevented by daily full body tick checks. Early removal of a tick is important because a tick generally has to be on the skin for 36 hours to transmit Lyme disease. The ticks are very small and tricky to spot when not filled with blood. See How to Remove a Tick for more information.

Bottom Line
The most likely insect problem at a picnic will be a bee sting. Don’t use tweezers!. A bee will leave behind a stinger attached to a venom sac. Try to remove it as quickly as possible by scraping the skin with a credit card. If you pull with tweezers you might squeeze all the venom into the person you are trying to help. Wash the sting and apply an ice pack. Give acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain (never aspirin with children.) No medical attention is needed UNLESS one of the following occurs:

• The person has a known bee allergy or has these symptoms:
• wheezing or difficulty breathing
• tightness in throat or chest
• swelling of the lips, tongue, or face
• dizziness or faintingnausea or vomiting
  
• The mouth region was stung. Oral swelling may block airways


• A large skin rash or swelling or pain persists from more than three days around the sting site. This could indicate an infection.

Picnic Food Safety

When left unrefrigerated, many foods can become contaminated with bacteria that produce the dangerous toxins that cause food poisoning. These bacteria are indetectable by sight, smell or taste and thrive on foods that are left out for very long, especially at warmer, summer temperatures. Foodborne illness symptoms are much like those of the flu, which include headache, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and fever. These signs may not appear until several hours to several days after eating a contaminated food. – FoodReference.com

With the Memorial Day weekend coming up, the season of picnicking officially begins. But beware: picnic foods can be hazardous!

• Picnic foods -- such as potato or macaroni salads, sandwich fillings, hamburger patties and cut watermelon -- require a lot of manual preparation. Handling increases the risk of contamination with harmful bacteria from unclean hands.


• Some common picnic foods are cooked or prepared in large quantities and kept unrefrigerated for hours. Warm temperatures promote bacterial growth.

Here are some guidelines for a safe picnic from NCSU and the FDA.

• Wash hands before handling food and use only clean utensils and containers. Wash all cooking surfaces and equipment.


• Over 67% of reported cases of foodborne illness are due to improper cooling. If not served immediately, cooked foods need to be rapidly cooled in shallow pans.


• Food illness bacteria, such as Salmonella and Shigella are often present on the rinds of watermelons. Wash watermelons before cutting them. Better yet, wash all fruits and vegetables.


• Keep cold food cold in a well-packed cooler. Mix the ice amongst the food – never just place the food on top of ice (cold air sinks, heat rises). Meat, poultry, and seafood may be packed while still frozen. When traveling keep your cooler on a car seat since the trunk can reach 150 F. While picnicking cover the cooler with a blanket and keep in a shaded spot. Keep all food in the cooler until needed. Anything left outside the cooler after one hour should be tossed.


• Pack pop cans in a separate cooler from food items. Since the soda cooler will constantly be reopened, the ice will melt faster and the temperature will be warmer.


• Keep hot food hot. Take-out foods (like KFC) or foods just cooked at home must be kept hot by wrapping them in insulation like towels, then newspaper, and then placing inside a box or heavy paper bag. Hot food should not be allowed to sit out for more than one hour.


• Never mix raw and cooked meat. Use separate utensils and dishes so bacteria from raw meat cannot jump to cooked meat.


• Cook food completely. No pink spots or blood in the juices.


• Toss out any leftovers from a picnic. The only safe food to keep is cold food that never left the cooler IF the cooler still has ice.

Bottom Line

The one hour and toss rule is for hot summer days above 90 F. Below that the FDA says two hours is the time limit before tossing.

The CDC has a cute site (kid friendly?) called Grillin' and Chillin' Keeping food safe during summer cookouts and picnics