Due to its speed and practicality, the hot dog is one of the most consumed fast foods worldwide, but have you ever wondered?How harmful is a hot dog? Perhaps it is more harmful than you imagine.
A study conducted by the University of Michigan evaluated around 5,800 foods to investigate the direct health impact of food in humans.
How harmful is a hot dog? / Photo: iStock
How many minutes of your life does a hot dog take away?
The article published in the specialized journal Nature Food found that consuming a hot dog reduces 36 minutes of healthy life, while consuming a handful of nuts can increase healthy life by up to 26 minutes.
The study also found that choosing 10% more vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, and even select fish and shellfish over the consumption of processed meats decreases the carbon footprint of the human diet. This would represent gaining 48 minutes of extra healthy living per day.
What diseases does the hot dog produce?
To know how harmful is a hot dogthe American Association against Cancer published an entry on the risks of regularly consuming processed meats such as ham, bacon and of course, sausage, the main ingredient of the hot dog.
Processed meat refers to the type of meat that has been treated to preserve it or flavor it with other substances through processes such as smoking, fermented curing, and salting.
According to the American Association Against Cancer, experts from different countries have carried out around 800 studies to demonstrate the damage caused by processed meats.
The results show that eating 50 grams of processed meat a day increased the risk of rectal and colon cancer by up to 18%; while in the case of red meat, it was found that it increases the risk not only of rectal and colon cancer, but also of the prostate and pancreas.
50 grams of processed meat is equivalent to eating a hot dog or 4 slices of bacon.
How harmful is a hot dog? / Photo: iStock
How harmful is sausage?
Given the composition and treatment given to processed meats, they usually contain large amounts of sodium, among other additives that put your health at risk. Therefore, it is not a recommended food for people with hypertension.
Now that you know how harmful a hot dog is, it is important to clarify that although consuming processed foods from time to time does not compromise your health, you must maintain a balanced diet that includes all food groups to avoid future complications.
If you want to know more about hypertension, we leave you an explanatory video about what you need to know.