A healthier hotdog?

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

University of Guelph scientists have devised a healthier hotdog that, they say, is "equally delicious."
The basis of the healthier claim is that half of the saturated fats in one of the touted wieners have been replaced with a mixture of ethyl cellulose and vegetable oil, which forms a gel and keeps the fatty acid profile of the vegetable oil used but possesses a solid structure that replaces the saturated fats. The hotdog doesn't taste like rubber, as other low-fat hotdogs are said to do.

Ethyl cellulose is on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Generally Regarded As Safe" (GRAS) list.

The premise that this hotdog is healthier than the regular ones is, of course, based on the belief that saturated fats are not healthy, which some scientists are now challenging. If they are right, the Guelph research is for naught, and there may be a future for the old-fashioned hotdog after all. BF