Researchers have examined how different foods — from nuts to hot dogs — can influence life expectancy.
For many, cracking open a can of soda on a hot day feels like the perfect refreshment. However, new research on how certain foods and drinks affect overall health may make you think twice before reaching for that fizzy beverage again.
The study, led by researchers Katerina Stylianou and Olivier Jolliet, analyzed a wide variety of everyday foods, evaluating their nutritional composition to determine both their positive and negative effects on health.
From their findings, the team developed a “Health Nutritional Index”—a tool that translates dietary choices into numbers showing how many minutes of healthy life could be gained or lost from each serving of specific foods.
In an article for The Conversation, Stylianou and Jolliet explained that their index is based on data from the large-scale epidemiological project Global Burden of Disease, which examines how environmental, metabolic, and behavioral factors—including 15 dietary risks—affect overall health outcomes.
They then refined this extensive dataset to focus on individual foods, incorporating more than 6,000 risk estimates that account for variables such as age, gender, medical conditions, and lifestyle factors.
The researchers weighed the benefits and impacts of different food servings.
What foods can add minutes to your life?
While moderation remains key, the study revealed that some foods can noticeably enhance life expectancy. For example, eating 30 grams of nuts and seeds could add an estimated 25 minutes of healthy, disease-free life, according to the findings.
What foods and drinks can shorten your life?
Not all dietary choices are as kind. The study found that just one serving of soda, such as a can of cola, could reduce healthy life expectancy by approximately 12 minutes. And realistically, most people don’t stop at just one.
Processed meats, particularly hot dogs, ranked even worse—one serving could shorten good-quality, disease-free life by about 36 minutes. Over time, these small losses can compound significantly.
The index reveals the impact of foods on both healthy lifespan and the environment.
How can you improve your healthy lifespan?
Changing eating habits overnight can be difficult, but the research showed that even modest adjustments can make a measurable difference.
Replacing just 10 percent of daily calories from beef and processed meats with healthier alternatives—such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, or seafood—could extend healthy life expectancy by an average of 48 minutes per day.
What experts say about the findings
Following the study, Jolliet emphasized the urgency of dietary changes, noting that the benefits extend beyond personal health.
Speaking through the University of Michigan, he said:
“Our findings demonstrate that small targeted substitutions offer a feasible and powerful strategy to achieve significant health and environmental benefits without requiring dramatic dietary shifts.”
