DISH: All-beef hot dog topped with ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, pickles and chopped tomatoes
RESTAURANT: Hot dog vendor, one of 307 in Toronto
LOCATION: The Toronto Ferry Docks, at the foot of Bay St. and Queens Quay
PRICE: $3
The sky is blue, the pavement is toasty and the smell of street meat wafts through the air.
Summer is here in Toronto. And it’s just about peak season for Trifon Bukuvalas, who is counting on the scent of grilling hot dogs to seduce passersby.
The hot dog vendor has been selling his fare at the entrance way of the Toronto Ferry Docks seven days a week for the last 12 years. He counts on his lunchtime regulars, but hopes to pull in potential customers with an astonishing range of toppings, from sliced green olives to potato chip crumbles.
Bukuvalas won’t reveal how many hot dogs he sells every day — the competition is always watching — but the vendor is getting ready to grill a lot of dogs.
Hot summer weekends, they are the busiest,” he says with a knowing nod. Most of his hungry customers are families on a day trip to Centre Island and their favourite topping — other than ketchup — is tomatoes. “They are freshly chopped,” says Bukuvalas. “That is what they like.
We all know a hot dog will never equal a crunchy, veggie-filled salad for its health value, even if the meat is topped with fresh-cut tomatoes. But we wondered what you get when you succumb to the summer-time lure of a barbecued all-beef hotdog nestled in a toasted egg bun.
Nothing good, of course.
There is not much you can say that is redeeming about a hotdog,” says registered dietitian Zannat Reza. “Once or twice in the baseball season, having a hotdog for a treat is fine. But just make sure you balance out the rest of the day or the next day by cutting back on salty foods and eating lots of fruits and vegetables.
At 560 calories, the hot dog is just slightly on the high end of calories you should consume for a single meal, especially since that number doesn’t include a drink. Or a swirl of ice cream from the truck parked down the way.
But Reza says it’s the amount of fat and sodium in the hot dog that should relegate it to being a very occasional treat.
The hot dog we tried contained 24 grams of fat, about one-third of the average woman’s daily allotment. And it had 2,239 mg of sodium, just shy of the maximum recommended amount a person should eat in a day.
A greater nutritional concern is that hot dogs are a processed meat that has been cured with salt and preservatives, Reza says.
It’s one of those foods you want to limit as much as you can.
Research has linked eating processed meats to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer.
In fact, a study published Monday by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found each 50 gram daily serving of processed meat, such as bacon, sausage or deli meats, is associated with a 42 per cent higher risk of developing heart disease and a 19 per cent higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. One hot dog weighs about 50 grams.
Don’t go looking for healthier fare at the hot dog stand. The veggie and turkey equivalents on those grills likely contain just as much sodium as a beef hot dog.
The soy and turkey hotdogs have the halo around them, but they are still processed,” says Reza. “It’s best to go for a food that is closer to its source.
Despite a dismal nutritional review, Bukuvalas will continue to enjoy eating hot dogs.
I like my own product,” he says. “I have one a couple times a week.
VERDICT: Give in to the lure of street meat only rarely.
