Each hot dog shortens your life expectancy by 36 minutes. How’s that?

Nutrition plays an important role in maintaining human health and directly depends on the quality of the food we eat. But food affects not only the body, but also the environment. Chances are, your diet consists of foods grown, processed and packaged thousands of miles away. And that means that breakfast or dinner has left behind a large carbon footprint. What is this phenomenon and which foods are safer and more environmentally friendly?

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The ideal eating style for environmental well-being is one in which people eat only unprocessed foods. That is, those that grow or live in the form in which they are eaten: vegetables, fruits, berries, herbs, mushrooms, beans, nuts and some seafood.

In addition, plant foods must be grown in the fields, as greenhouses leave a carbon footprint too. Of course, this arrangement would be quite beneficial to our health as well, but it begs the question: how feasible is it?

What is a carbon footprint?

Carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are produced by the way we live, work, and produce. You can calculate your carbon footprint yourself using one of the many calculators available, such as the one here.

It is very difficult to carry out the calculation, taking into account all the variety of products and services. Therefore, the calculations focus on those areas where data is easiest to obtain: utilities, transportation, and food (not including storage and transportation).

A recently published study from the University of Michigan emphasizes that replacing 10% of your daily beef and processed meats with a mix of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and selected seafood can reduce your dietary carbon footprint by one-third and add up to 48 minutes to a person’s “healthy life.”

The HENI index, which is used to calculate the net “healthy” or “unhealthy” health burden in minutes of healthy life, is related to the type of foods consumed. For example, according to a University of Michigan study, eating a hot dog can cost you 36 minutes of “healthy” life, while a serving of nuts can help you gain an additional 26 minutes.

The index is an adaptation of the GBD index, which relates mortality and morbidity to an individual’s food choices. For the HENI, a new index assessing “healthy” time to live, the researchers used 15 dietary risk factors and scores from the GBD and combined them with the nutritional profiles of United States residents. Foods with a positive score “add” minutes to a “healthy” life, while foods with a negative score “take away” minutes.

The main thing is to take a conscious approach to organizing your life. This applies not only to nutrition, but also to other areas. Know the measure, do not fall into fanaticism and extremes!