Here’s a fun fact for a holiday weekend that traditionally features backyard BBQs—eating a hot dog takes 35 minutes off your life!
That’s what researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences claim in their nature journal which publishes a new nutritional Index.
Let’s dive into this and see why they’ve made such shocking hot dog claims.
What is The Nutritional Index?
Researchers at the University of Michigan recently created a health nutrition index, which includes information for over 5,000 food items in the U.S. The foods are classified by health burden and environmental impact, and the goal is to inform guidelines that will help Americans achieve healthier and more environmentally stable diets.
Each food is ranked by the time it takes to eat one serving of a particular food. They studied a range of foods, from 74 minutes lost up to 80 minutes gained.
Hot Dogs Are Big Offenders
According to the index, sugary drinks, breakfast sandwiches and burgers were the most detrimental when it comes to how much time is lost from a healthy lifestyle.
On the other hand, the most popular foods were fruits, vegetables (non-starchy), mixed vegetables, ready-to-eat cereals and cooked grains.
Researchers found that eating one serving of 85g chicken wings resulted in 3.3 minutes of reduced quality of life due to high levels of sodium and trans fatty acids. 35 minutes were lost by eating one beef hotdog on a bun. “largely due to the detrimental effect of processed meat.”
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich were some of the foods that were associated with time gain. It increased a healthy lifestyle by 33 minutes. Salted peanuts (baked salmon), rice with beans, and rice and beans all showed gains between 10 to 15 minutes.
Here’s The Good News
Their analysis shows that even small changes to your diet can have significant effects on your health as well as the environment.
“We use the results to inform marginal dietary substitutions, which are realistic and feasible,” These were the words of the authors. “We find that small, targeted, food-level substitutions can achieve compelling nutritional benefits and environmental impact reductions.”
This means that if you replace 10% of your daily caloric intake with processed meats and beef, you can see amazing improvements in the health and well-being of your body. We’re talking 48 healthy minutes gained per day and a 33% reduction in your dietary carbon footprint.
Joey Chestnut, OK?
Obviously, with the news that eating one hot dog can take 35 minutes off of your life, our thoughts and prayers immediately went to Joey Chestnut, the 13-time champ of the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
He holds the world record for eating 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes, and Chestnut estimates he’s eaten more than 19,000 hot dogs over the last 16 years. By the study’s calculation, that means he’s lost one year and 15 minutes of his life.
“Interesting, I might need to eat more nuts to go back in time,” Chestnut tweet.