ANALYSIS/OPINION:

What happened to the good old days, when the worst things we had to fear on Memorial Day were traffic jams and indigestion? Folks planning to dust off their outdoor grills this holiday weekend face a nasty choice: If they undercook their hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken, their family and friends may face food poisoning by E. coli and salmonella, but if they raise the temperature to kill these bacteria, they run the risk of creating carcinogenic meat. (The U.S. Meat and Poultry Hotline advises raising the temperature when cooking, but our own National Cancer Institute warns that high-temperature grilling of processed meats produces cancer-causing compounds.)

Do we really need to choose between food poisoning and cancer?

Luckily, a bunch of enterprising food processors have met this challenge head-on by developing a great variety of healthful, delicious plant-based veggie burgers, veggie dogs and soy nuggets. These products don’t harbor nasty bugs or cancer-causing compounds. They don’t even offer cholesterol, saturated fats, drugs or pesticides like their animal-based alternatives. And they are waiting for us in the frozen-food section of our neighborhood supermarket, along with nut-based milks, ice creams and other dairy-free desserts.

This Memorial Day, let’s stay safe on the roads — and on our family barbecue grills.

WILL PUTZLER

Washington

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