Food & Beverage

One hot dog shortens lifespan by 36 minutes, PB&J adds 33 minutes

Photo by istock.com

August 24, 2021

In the category of what most QSRs, fast casual restaurants and hot dog food truck vendors "don't want to hear" comes a study that claims humans lose 36 minutes of their lives for every dirty water dog they consume.

That's a prime finding from the Health Nutritional Index, created by researchers from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The data, published in the Nature journal, details dietary risk components linked to certain foods as well as food that can extend a human's lifespan.

Along with hot dogs, sugary drinks, burgers and breakfast sandwiches are linked with the loss of life minutes, and the findings touch on 5,000 foods found in the U.S. diet, according to a New York Post report.

And don't replace those dirty water dogs with a hankering for wings as eating one 85-gram serving of chicken wings equals 3.3 minutes of life lost.

Switching out 10% of daily caloric consumption from beef and processed meat for fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and some seafood could bring a gain of some 48 minutes per person per day. Eating a PB&J sandwich, for example, can add 33 minutes to a life.

"Previous studies investigating healthy or sustainable diets have often reduced their findings to a discussion of plant-based versus animal-based foods, with the latter stigmatized as the least nutritious and sustainable," the study stated, according to the Post report. "Although we find that plant-based foods generally perform better, there are considerable variations within both plant-based and animal-based foods that should be acknowledged before such generalized inferences are warranted."

Last year, according to data from the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council, 944.3 million pounds of hot dogs were sold at retail stores. That number represents more than $2.8 billion in retail sales.