Ultra-Processed Foods: THIS food cuts 36 minutes off your life expectancy every time you eat it! |

A new study reveals that ultra-processed foods significantly reduce life expectancy. Each hot dog could shorten lifespan by 36 minutes, while sugary and sugar-free soft drinks steal 12 minutes. Researchers found a 10% increased mortality risk among older adults with high ultra-processed food consumption over two decades. Processed meats and soft drinks were strongly linked to mortality.

In today’s fast-paced world, where most of us are caught in the rat race for success, healthy eating often takes a backseat. Grabbing a ready-to-eat meal along with a soft drink might look like a convenient choice. But did you know these foods are stealing precious time from your life?
Nutritionist Luis Zamora has recently warned about the after-effects of consuming ultra-processed foods, including slashing life expectancy. According to the nutritionist, each hot dog reduces life expectancy by an average of 36 minutes. He also quoted another study and added that soft drinks, even the ones labeled sugar-free would steal 12 minutes of life.

Another popular item that would slash life expectancy is cheeseburger. Each cheeseburger would take away 9 minutes. The nutritionist also cautioned about consuming bacon and all processed red meat, as each serving would take away about six minutes of life.
The alarming studies have grabbed the attention at the Nutrition 2024, the annual summit of the American Society for Nutrition. The study was led by Erikka Loftfield and her teammates at the National Cancer Institute.
The study also found out that older adults consuming higher amounts of ultra-processed foods were about 10% more likely to die over a median follow-up of 23 years compared with those who consumed less processed food.
“Our study results support a larger body of literature, including both observational and experimental studies, which indicate that ultra-processed food intake adversely impacts health and longevity. However, there is still a lot that we don’t know, including what aspects of ultra-processed foods pose potential health risks,” Erikka Loftfield, PhD, Stadtman Investigator at the National Cancer Institute said in a statement.

The study analyzed data from over 540,000 people, aged 50-71 in the mid-1990s, with more than half now deceased. The researchers compared death rates between those in the highest and lowest percentiles of ultra-processed food consumption and also analyzed its links to specific foods and diseases.

“We observed that highly processed meat and soft drinks were a couple of the subgroups of ultra-processed food most strongly associated with mortality risk and eating a diet low in these foods is already recommended for disease prevention and health promotion,” Loftfield added.

Meanwhile, several studies have found that ultra-processed foods are linked to obesity, chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers
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