What is your favorite food? Surely most of us would repeat the same pattern, something related to ultra-processed food, pizzas, hamburgers or hot dogs, right? Well now a study from the University of Michigan has given a fact that left us cold: each one of these foods could be taking years off your life.
It is not a joke, we wish it were, a hot dog could take up to 36 minutes of life from you! But even an innocent plate of macaroni with tomato is also on the blacklist… In addition, it points out that sweetened drinks with aspartame can be harmful to our body, generating from anxiety to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes… what is happening?
Ultra-processed food
Products that are full of ingredients you would never use in your kitchen: preservatives, colorings, flavorings and a bunch of added sugars and fats. Sodas, industrial pastries, frozen pizzas or the sugary cereals or cookies we normally consume…
The problem is not only that they make you gain weight, but that they provide little or no real nutrients.
What do they warn?
The researchers measured precisely the impact of each food on health and concluded that processed and fast products are the most harmful. Not only are they full of empty calories, they also add preservatives and additives that are not especially good for our body.
Concrete examples of health impact
The cheeseburger takes 9 minutes of life, while ham takes 24 minutes… In the case of pizza or macaroni with cheese, it was found that they also shorten life expectancy, reinforcing the idea that regular consumption of these foods can have serious long-term consequences.
Watch out, we are not talking about them being forbidden products!!! Who could live without eating a hamburger? We are talking about foods that should not be eaten often over time because they can generate more problems than pleasure when eating them…
The case of aspartame
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener created in the 60s, it is almost 200 times sweeter than sugar and according to the study, every time you consume it you lose about 12 minutes of life… The worst thing is that companies have gotten used to using it in diet or sugar-free drinks. All wrong!!!
Among the risks of consuming aspartame are anxiety, cancer or type 2 diabetes, be very careful.
Do all foods shorten life?
No! Not everything is bad, we do not want you to feel that because you are eating something tasty you are going to die, please! Just as there are foods that shorten your life, there are others that add, for example, eating fish (fresh and grilled, nothing fried) could give you 10 more minutes of life, and if you replace 10% of the calories from processed meats with fruits and vegetables you could add up to 48 minutes!
The balance is in the diet
You do not have to radically eliminate these foods, you just have to learn to consume them and balance what you eat, but eating. Nothing about stopping eating, please, we do not want to end up with an eating disorder.
We just want to learn to eat with healthier options, even more in this country with an obesity rate so extremely high.
A hot dog or a big hamburger does not seem like much until you do the math, you are not going to die tomorrow, but we are still in time to reverse the clock and start eating in a healthy way, vegetables are also incredibly tasty!