Study indicates that a hot dog can reduce life expectancy by 36 minutes.

It certainly comes as no surprise to anyone that eating hot dogs is considered unhealthy.
However, have you ever stopped to think how much life this sandwich can "steal" from you?

Researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a study to look at the impact of food on healthy life expectancy.
They examined more than 5,800 commonly eaten foods in the United States and calculated how many minutes of healthy living one serving of each food can add or subtract.

Using an index based on the Global Burden of Disease study, the researchers assigned values in minutes for the benefits or harms associated with each food.
For example, consuming one gram of processed meat is estimated to lose 0.45 minutes of life, while consuming one gram of fruit is estimated to gain 0.1 minutes.

To perform this analysis, the researchers took into account the composition of each food and used previously developed food profiles.

It is important to emphasize that this study is a form of estimation and that several other factors contribute to longevity and health in general.

The hot dog

One of the dishes analyzed by the team was the traditional hot dog, which contains 61 grams of processed meat.
The study estimated a loss of 27 minutes of healthy life due to the consumption of this food. However, when sodium content and trans fats were also considered, the time lost increased to 36 minutes.

On the other hand, foods like fruits, nuts, legumes and non-starchy vegetables have been shown to have positive health effects.

Although the study by researchers at the University of Michigan was published in August 2021 in the scientific journal Nature Food, the conclusions are not exactly new. Another research had already pointed out that the consumption of a sausage can result in a loss of 15 minutes of life.