The perennial vegan worrywarts at Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) have once again warned that grilled hot dogs increase colorectal cancer risk. But this potential harm is wildly overstated—as it has been since it first emerged from the dark recesses of nutritional epidemiology many years ago.

Your absolute risk of colorectal cancer remains quite low, and the occasional ballpark hot dog probably doesn't move the needle in either direction. Let's take a closer look.