What if the food in your lunch could be translated into minutes of healthy life gained or lost? Researchers at the University of Michigan tried to do exactly that, analyzing thousands of foods and developing a healthy life minutes calculation that produced some startling results. A hot dog was associated with 36 minutes lost, while a serving of nuts and seeds was associated with roughly 25 minutes gained, according to the researchers’ explanation published by the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Sugar-sweetened cola also landed on the losing side at roughly 12 minutes per serving, a finding that has recently resurfaced in claims about Coca-Cola. Before dumping every Coke in the refrigerator, however, it’s important to understand what those numbers actually mean and what they definitely don’t.
Researchers Analyzed More Than 5,800 Foods
The research wasn’t a small experiment that followed a handful of people after eating hamburgers and drinking soda. Published in Nature Food, the study evaluated 5,853 foods in the U.S. diet using nutritional health effects along with 18 environmental indicators. Researchers developed something called the Health Nutritional Index, or HENI, which translated estimated health effects into healthy life minutes gained or lost per serving. Scores across the foods ranged from an estimated loss of 74 minutes to a gain of 80 minutes per serving. That makes HENI better understood as a way of comparing the estimated health burden of food choices, not a stopwatch attached to your lifespan.
A Hot Dog Came Out at Minus 36 Minutes
One of the study’s most memorable examples was an ordinary hot dog. The researchers explained through the University of Michigan School of Public Health that the 61 grams of processed meat in a hot dog sandwich accounted for approximately 27 minutes of healthy life lost before other nutritional factors were considered. After accounting for factors including sodium and trans fatty acids as well as potentially beneficial components such as polyunsaturated fats and fiber, the final estimate reached 36 minutes lost. That doesn’t mean someone eating a hot dog at noon should expect to die exactly 36 minutes earlier than they otherwise would have. It means the food received a negative healthy life minutes score based on population-level relationships between dietary risk factors, disease, and healthy life expectancy.
What About That 12-Minute Coke Claim?
Here’s where the viral version of this research gets a little ahead of the science. The underlying data included sugar-sweetened cola at an average of roughly 12 healthy life minutes lost per serving, but the research did not conduct an experiment showing that one specific can of Coca-Cola removes exactly 12 minutes from someone’s life. Coca-Cola’s own current nutrition information lists 39 grams of added sugar and 140 calories in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola Original. More importantly, the HENI figure concerns healthy life expectancy (time expected to be lived without disease or disability), rather than a literal countdown to death. So “every Coke takes 12 minutes off your life” makes a punchy social-media post, but “sugar-sweetened cola received an estimated negative HENI score” is much closer to what the research actually found.
For additional context, the American Heart Association recommends no more than about 25 grams of added sugar per day for most women and 36 grams for men. A 12-ounce Coca-Cola Original listing 39 grams of added sugar therefore exceeds either of those daily recommendations by itself.
The 12-minute number shouldn’t be interpreted literally, but that doesn’t mean broader concerns about sugary drinks are based on a single food-scoring model. The American Heart Association points to long-term research associating regular sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with higher risks of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. Those studies examine patterns of consumption and population risk, not what happens to one individual after drinking one Coke.
Some Foods Went in the Opposite Direction
All of that said, the calculations weren’t designed solely to identify foods researchers considered detrimental. A 30-gram serving of nuts and seeds was associated with approximately 25 minutes of healthy life gained, according to the researchers’ University of Michigan explanation. In general, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and some seafood performed better in the model than processed meats and certain other foods. That doesn’t mean eating almonds after a hot dog literally erases the hot dog’s effect minute for minute. Instead, the healthy life minutes model becomes more useful when you stop treating individual foods like transactions and start looking at the direction your overall diet is moving.
One Small Swap Produced a Surprisingly Large Estimate
Perhaps the most useful finding from the research had nothing to do with banning hot dogs or soda. Researchers calculated that replacing just 10% of daily calories from beef and processed meat with a mixture of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and selected seafood could produce an estimated gain of 48 healthy minutes per person per day. The same change could reduce a person’s dietary carbon footprint by about one-third, according to the University of Michigan School of Public Health. That is a much more realistic goal than expecting someone to completely eliminate every favorite food that receives a negative score.
Instead of interpreting the study as a reason to buy expensive products labeled “healthy,” start with inexpensive substitutions. Dry or canned beans can replace some processed meat meals, oatmeal can provide a whole-grain breakfast, frozen vegetables can reduce spoilage compared with fresh produce that goes unused, and water can replace at least some purchased sugary beverages. The goal isn’t to create a perfect grocery cart; it’s to find swaps that improve nutritional quality without increasing the weekly food budget.
Don’t Treat the Numbers Like a Personal Life-Expectancy Calculator
A model this easy to understand also comes with an obvious danger: people can take its numbers far more literally than they should. HENI combines population-level disease-burden estimates with nutritional profiles, meaning it cannot account for everything that determines an individual’s health, including genetics, physical activity, medical conditions, smoking, overall diet, and countless other factors. The original Nature Food paper describes the figures as estimates of marginal health effects expressed in minutes of healthy life gained or lost, not guaranteed changes to an individual’s lifespan. Eating one hot dog therefore doesn’t start a 36-minute countdown, just as eating one serving of nuts doesn’t deposit 25 extra minutes into a biological savings account. The healthy life minutes numbers are best used to visualize relative dietary risks and potential benefits.
The Financial Cost of Food Choices Can Show Up Years Later
The HENI study doesn’t calculate what a Coke or hot dog will eventually cost you in medical bills, and it would be misleading to draw that direct connection. But diet is one piece of a much larger financial health picture, because the CDC identifies poor nutrition as a risk factor for costly chronic conditions including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Chronic and mental health conditions are associated with 90% of the nation’s $5.3 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures, while the CDC estimates diagnosed diabetes alone costs the country $640 billion annually in medical expenses and lost productivity. For an individual household, the more immediate financial decision happens at the grocery store: replacing some sugary drinks and processed meats with water, beans, whole grains, fruits, or other nutrient-dense foods doesn’t necessarily require buying premium “health foods.”
There’s also a straightforward household-budget angle to a daily soda habit. If a household spends even $1 per serving on one sugar-sweetened drink every day, that’s $365 a year; at $2 per drink, it’s $730. Replacing some of those purchases with tap water doesn’t require calculating hypothetical future healthcare savings; the grocery-budget savings are immediate.
The research therefore offers an interesting money lesson as well as a health one. Small food substitutions can be evaluated not only by their price today, but by whether they support a healthier long-term lifestyle without making the grocery budget harder to manage.
The Bigger Lesson Isn’t Really About Coke
It’s understandable that Coke and hot dogs grab attention, but the more practical takeaway from this research is surprisingly ordinary. The study suggests that modest substitutions can matter, and you don’t necessarily need an expensive supplement, specialty diet, or complete kitchen overhaul to move in a healthier direction. Replacing some processed meat with beans or nuts, eating more fruits and vegetables, or occasionally choosing water instead of a sugar-sweetened cola are relatively inexpensive changes compared with many products marketed as health solutions. That’s especially relevant for anyone trying to improve nutrition without blowing up the grocery budget, because many of the foods that performed well (beans, whole grains and some nuts, for example) can also be affordable pantry staples.
If foods came labeled with estimated healthy life minutes gained or lost, would it actually change what you put in your grocery cart? Share your thoughts in the comments.
What to Read Next
8 Brain-Health Habits Backed by Real Science
7 New Aging-Cell Findings Scientists Say Could Change How We Think About “Biological Age”
Scientists Say This Hidden Brain Trigger Could Be Driving High Blood Pressure in Millions
