We truly are what we eat. The study by a group of researchers from the University of Michigan wants to underline precisely this: ours food choices have a burden on personal and collective health. We are not specifically talking about food products that are bad or good for you, but about foods that the minutes of healthy life decrease or increase. Among the foods with a negative score are: red meat And carbonated drinkswhile you can save minutes thanks to the traditional “poor cuisine” that includes cereals And legumes. The publication also proposes a solution to gain up to 48 minutes of healthy living a day: replace 10% of your calorie intake daily derived from meat with foods classified as best.
The foods that take minutes of healthy life away from us and the planet
In 2024 we have no lack of awareness of the impact of the food sector on our health and that of the Earth. However, other factors often dictate the choice of what we eat, such as food poverty and the impossibility of accessing quality, seasonal and minimally processed products. Knowing the consequences of a riskier diet for your health therefore does not always correspond to a change in eating habits.
Experts have long been trying to raise alarms about certain types of products, such as those ultraprocessedbased on processed red meat or carbonated and sugary drinkssometimes without success or with the opposite effect of increasing consumption. A new case study was recently published, in which the authors counted the minutes of healthy living that some foods, worse than others, take away.
5,800 foods were analyzed and a report was drawn up classification of those that make us gain or lose minutes of healthy life based on different medical factors.
The ranking: risky foods and those with low impact
The calculation proposed by researchers at the University of Michigan involves the combination of 15 different dietary risk factors and health effects, which were converted into minutes of healthy living lost or gained.
Hence the ranking, see how worse foods:
- processed meat (mostly red)
- drinks sugary
- ultra-processed foods
- candies
In particular, products such as processed meat, cold cuts and processed products such as frankfurters emerge with negative effects. An example on processed meat:
a person loses an average of 0.45 minutes of healthy living for every gram of processed meat consumed. A particular case is thehot dog: 36 minutes of healthy living lost.
On the contrary, i better for minutes of healthy living are all foods from the traditional poor cuisine of many countries, including Italy and the inevitable fish:
- nuts
- seeds
- whole grains
- vegetables
- legumes
- fish
An example of healthy living minutes earned based on two foods:
a 30 gram serving of nuts and seeds corresponds to 25 minutes of healthy living.
Hence the experts’ suggestion on how to improve some food choices we make every day. Replace at least the 10% of calorie intake daily derived from meat with cereals, legumes, fruit and vegetables provides 48 minutes of healthy living per day.
