Doctors Declare July 15 National Veggie Dog Day

WASHINGTON—The nonprofit Physicians Committee will bring HipCityVeg—D.C.’s hottest new vegan restaurant—to Congress on July 15 for the Congressional Veggie Dog Smackdown. The event, sponsored by the Congressional Vegetarian Staff Association, honors four vegetarian members of Congress and offers a healthful antidote to the North American Meat Institute’s Annual Hot Dog Lunch on Capitol Hill on July 14.

 

HipCityVeg founder Nicole Marquis will create four exclusive fruit-and-veggie-based relishes for a veggie dog—not served in her restaurant—to honor four vegetarian members of Congress: Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Rep. Ted Deutch (Fla.), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.).

 

“At HipCityVeg, we’re creating a new normal that’s better for ourselves and the world we live in,” says Nicole Marquis, HipCityVeg founder. “We are honored to create a new plant-based menu inspired by members of Congress who are working to do the same.”

 

The Physicians Committee’s Neal Barnard, MD, will also discuss the health benefits of choosing veggie dogs (and a colorful plant-based diet) over hot dogs and other processed meats, which the World Health Organization declared “carcinogenic to humans.” Each 50-gram portion of processed meat—the size of a typical hot dog—eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.

 

“Hot dogs cause cancer and are so yesterday, like the North American Meat Institute’s Annual Hot Dog Lunch,” says Physicians Committee president Neal Barnard, MD. “Delicious, disease-fighting plant-based meals like today’s help to create a healthier future.”