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Call Caryn’s personal archive number to hear the most recent five episodes of It’s All About Food: 1-701-719-0885
Who Gets to Decide What’s on Your Plate?
This episode uses 4 food stories to ask one question: who decides what counts as “good” food, and are they getting it right?
- The hot dog itself: how it’s actually manufactured (trimmings → emulsion → casing → smoke → cool/package), why processed meat’s nitrites carry a real but often-overstated cancer risk, a taste-test rundown of the best vegan hot dogs (Field Roast leads the pack), and a full carrot hot dog recipe as the “whole food” alternative.
- The Coney Island contest: Joey Chestnut’s 18th win (66 dogs in 10 minutes) and Miki Sudo’s 12th, the real medical risks competitive eaters face (gastroparesis, choking, gastric rupture), and a pointed reflection on the contradiction of a health-conscious country turning extreme overconsumption into a televised holiday spectacle.
- The National Food Museum‘s Food Impact Meter: praise for its Harvard-backed methodology, paired with a direct critique of how it penalizes skipping dairy/fish on a whole-food plant-based diet, and how it treats eating more fruits and vegetables as bad for your environmental score.
- Europe’s meat decline: the real consumption data and reasons behind it, plus the EU’s 2025–2026 fight over banning words like “burger” and “sausage” on plant-based labels — and the surprising compromise that let those two words survive.
Caryn shares recipes she made for the summer holiday weekend:
- Falafel Burgers
- Fresh Fruit Tart
- Raw Carrot Cake*
*This recipe was modified using unsweetened soy milk in the frosting instead of coconut cream; salt was omitted; date or raisin butter used instead of maple syrup.