Keep Hot Dogs Off Your Plate this Baseball Season

This week, Major League Baseball teams are celebrating Opening Day—and kicking off a season of increased colorectal cancer risk for baseball fans. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, baseball fans are expected to eat more than 19 million hot dogs during the 2016 season. But even eating just one hot dog a day can increase the risk of colorectal cancer, which kills more than 50,000 Americans per year.

Late last year, the World Health Organization released a report declaring hot dogs and other processed meats “carcinogenic to humans.” Studies show that consuming one daily 50-gram serving of processed meat—about the size of a typical hot dog—increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent.

Unfortunately, some stadiums have taken baseball’s deadly hot dog addiction to a new extreme this year. The Atlanta Braves recently debuted “The Everything Dog”—a foot-long hot dog piled high with french fries, popcorn, chips, chili, and beer cheese. The Arizona Diamondbacks are offering a deep-fried Cheeseburger Dog made of ground hamburgers, bacon, and cheese, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are selling a Cracker Jack & Mac Dog—a hot dog topped with Cracker Jacks, macaroni and cheese, salted caramel sauce, and fried jalapeños.

Fortunately, other teams are stepping up to the plate and offering more health-promoting options. The Texas Rangers recently unveiled a brand new all-vegan concession stand for the 2016 season, which sells black bean burgers, spinach wraps, fresh fruit, and veggie hot dogs.

At AT&T Park in San Francisco, Giants fans can sample fresh strawberries, avocados, lemons, and other produce grown in a vegetable garden in the outfield. The fresh fruits and vegetables are incorporated into vegetable flatbreads, strawberry smoothies, and kale salads sold at the stadium.

As some teams begin to offer healthful, plant-based options, it’s time for the rest of Major League Baseball to start incorporating our country’s health into our national pastime—and to strike out hot dogs for good.