‘Hot dogs’ can cost you 36 minutes of a healthy life!!!

According to a University of Michigan study, eating a hot dog could cost you 36 minutes of a healthy life, while eating nuts instead could give you 26 minutes. More than 5,800 foods were examined in the study, published in the journal Nature Food, and ranked on the basis of their impact on human health and the environment. By substituting fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and select seafood for 10 percent of daily calories from beef and processed meats, a dietary carbon footprint could be reduced by one-third and people would gain 48 minutes of healthy activity each day.

‘In general, dietary recommendations do not provide specific and actionable directions to motivate people to change their behavior, and rarely do dietary recommendations consider environmental impacts,’ said Katerina Stylianou, a doctoral student and postdoctoral fellow at the U-M School of Public Health. At the Detroit Health Department, she oversees public health information and data management initiatives.

The researchers used a new epidemiology-based nutritional index, the Health Nutritional Index, developed in collaboration with nutritionist Victor Fulgoni III from Nutrition Impact LLC, to calculate the net health benefit or burden associated with a serving of food. A single food choice is associated with disease mortality and morbidity in the Global Burden of Disease Index.

To develop the HENI, researchers combined 15 dietary risk factors and disease burden estimates from the GBD with nutrition profiles of foods consumed in the United States, taken from the What We Eat in America database of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Those foods with positive scores add healthy minutes to life, while those with negative scores can negatively impact health outcomes.

IMPACT World+, a method of assessing the life cycle impacts of foods (production, processing, manufacture, preparation, cooking, consumption, waste), was used to assess the environmental impact of foods. Assessments of water use and human health damages during fine particulate matter formation were also enhanced. Based on food recipes and anticipated food waste, they developed scores for 18 environmental indicators.

As a final step, researchers classified foods into three color zones, green, yellow, and red, based on their nutritional and environmental performances. Green zone foods are considered nutrients that are beneficial and low in environmental impact, so they are recommended to include in one’s diet. Nuts, fruits, vegetable fields, legumes, whole grains, and seafood are the predominant foods in this zone. Foods in the red zone have either considerable nutritional or environmental impacts and should be reduced or avoided.

In terms of nutrition, processed meats dominated, while climate change and most other environmental impacts were driven by beef, pork, lamb, and processed meats. While acknowledging considerable ranges among the indicators, the researchers also note that nutritionally beneficial foods are not always associated with the lowest environmental effects. Previous studies have often reduced their findings to a discussion of plant-versus-animal-based foods. Stylianou said, ‘Despite the fact that plant-based foods generally perform better, there are considerable variations within both plant-based and animal-based foods’.

Read more: ‘No one is safe until all of us are safe’: EAM Jaishankar draws parallels between Covid & terrorism at the UNSC

The researchers suggest:

1. Reducing foods that pose the greatest health and environmental risks, such as high processed meat, beef, shrimp, then pork, lamb and greenhouse-grown vegetables.

2. Growing the most nutritionally beneficial foods, including field-grown fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seafood with low environmental impact. Olivier Jolliet, professor of environmental health science at the University of Michigan and senior author of the paper, stated that dietary changes were urgently needed in order to improve human health and the environment.

A study conducted in the frame of an unrestricted grant from the National Dairy Council and a Dow Sustainability Fellowship from the University of Michigan demonstrated that small targeted substitutions can achieve significant health and environmental benefits without requiring dramatic dietary changes. Similarly-designed evaluation systems are also being developed by researchers in Switzerland, Brazil and Singapore. The company would like to eventually expand to countries all over the world.