Forget what you'd do for a Klondike bar; what would you give up for a hot dog? That's a question plenty of people are pondering today after a new study revealed that eating a hot dog could cost you 36 minutes of healthy life.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, broke down the healthiness and sustainability of 5,853 foods consumed in an American diet, in an effort to find "marginal" dietary substitutions that would lead to significant gains for health and the environment.
Austin Thomason/Michigan Photography and University of Michigan
According to researchers, the foods with the most damaging health and environmental impacts include heavily processed meat, beef, shrimp, pork, lamb and vegetables grown in greenhouses.
However minutes can be gained, the study explains. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for instance, can add 33 minutes of "healthy life" (otherwise known as "good-quality and disease-free life expectancy," according to a The Conversation article written by the study's researchers).
Other analyzed foods include vegetable pizza (1.4 minutes lost per serving), apple pie (1.3 minutes gained) and chicken wings (3.3 minutes lost).
Things like nuts, fruit, field-grown vegetables, whole grains and some seafood are considered to be good for your body and for the environment, researchers says, adding that by substituting some of these foods for the processed meats and beef in their diets, people could gain 48 minutes of healthy life per day.
"Our findings demonstrate that small targeted substitutions offer a feasible and powerful strategy to achieve significant health and environmental benefits without requiring dramatic dietary shifts," writes Olivier Jolliet, a professor at the University of Michigan and a senior author of the paper. "The urgency of dietary changes to improve human health and the environment is clear."