10 Foods That SHORTEN Your Lifespan
These foods and drinks taste great...but are slowly killing you. For this list, we’ll be looking at food and drink that scientific studies have deemed detrimental to one's health.
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00:00 Can eating a single hot dog really take 36 minutes off your life?
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the 10 foods that shorten
00:09 your lifespan.
00:10 "Are artificial sweeteners a safe alternative?"
00:12 For this list we'll be looking at food and drink that scientific studies have deemed
00:16 detrimental to one's health.
00:19 Which of these items are you going to stop consuming right away?
00:22 Let us know in the comments!
00:26 10. Red Meat "If one is able and comfortable to have no
00:32 red meat at all is a good thing."
00:35 It's been said that eating too much red meat is bad for you, but a study by the Harvard
00:39 Medical School put actual numbers to those claims.
00:43 According to the researchers, eating just one extra meal of red meat per day increased
00:46 a person's risk of death by 13 percent.
00:50 And that's just for the unprocessed meats.
00:52 When it comes to processed red meat, we're talking up around 20 percent.
00:56 While giving up red meat entirely is probably not a bad idea, that's an almost impossible
01:01 feat for many of us.
01:02 However, substituting one red meat serving per day with things like nuts or lentils,
01:07 or even fish or chicken, can, according to researchers, possibly reduce the risk of death
01:12 by 7 to 19 percent.
01:15 "From the evidence so far, what I conclude is that eating a lot of red meat every day
01:20 is not a great idea."
01:21 9.
01:23 Salt We all know that a little salt brings out
01:26 the flavors in many a meal.
01:28 "Salt contains sodium.
01:29 Too much sodium in your blood pulls the water back in."
01:32 And without salt, there never would have been a Salt Bay.
01:34 Although that might just be another argument against the stuff.
01:38 But that being said, watching your salt intake and avoiding foods with high sodium counts
01:43 is a very good idea.
01:45 And you don't have to just take our word for it, as there are studies and numbers that
01:49 back it up.
01:50 One such study, which looked at the diets of people in 195 countries over 27 years,
01:55 concluded that a high-sodium diet was one of the top three leading dietary risk factors
02:00 for deaths.
02:01 "Adults and children over 11 shouldn't eat more than 6 grams of salt a day."
02:07 8.
02:08 Sugary Snacks and Cereals Regardless of what Tony the Tiger told us,
02:12 starting our day with sugar isn't great.
02:15 "Trusted grapes are more than good things."
02:22 In fact, sugar in general can actually have a pretty significantly detrimental effect
02:27 on our potential lifespan.
02:29 So says a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
02:34 Put simply, this 15-year study concluded that those who ingested 25% or more of their daily
02:39 calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those
02:45 whose diets included less than 10% added sugar.
02:49 And if you were hoping that your gender, age, or physical fitness would save you, none of
02:53 that had any effect on the numbers.
02:57 "No way."
02:59 "Way 38 teaspoons."
03:01 7.
03:03 Alcohol Excessive drinking can have some rather funny
03:06 and embarrassing consequences, but it can also lead to very dire ones for those getting
03:11 behind the wheel while drunk or those in the path of someone driving while intoxicated.
03:16 However, the shortened lifespan due to alcohol isn't only associated with drunk driving.
03:22 Excessive drinking, which the CDC defines as binge drinking, or 8+ drinks per week for
03:26 women and 15+ drinks for men, can lead to serious long-term consequences to one's health.
03:33 These range from high blood pressure and heart disease to memory issues and a weakening of
03:37 the immune system.
03:39 The organization also warns of the risk of some cancers increases with as little as only
03:43 one drink a day.
03:44 "A survey in the Lancet Medical Journal says the overall risk of liquor outweighs
03:49 any known benefit."
03:51 6.
03:52 Energy drinks Everyone can use a boost now and again, but
03:56 is an energy drink the best way to go?
03:59 Probably not.
04:00 But is it harmful?
04:02 The truth is that it can be.
04:04 An energy drink every now and then is probably fine, but regular and especially excessive
04:09 consumption might get you into trouble.
04:12 Depending on the drink, consuming just two can take you beyond 400mg of caffeine, the
04:17 recommended daily limit for adults.
04:20 Energy drinks have been shown to raise blood pressure and heart rates.
04:23 And according to Dr. John Higgins from the University of Texas Health Science Center,
04:28 there's been several cases described of people that have gone into cardiac arrest after consuming
04:33 more than one energy beverage.
04:35 And to prevent your child from accidentally drinking an energy drink, she says keep them
04:40 locked up.
04:41 5.
04:43 Fried Foods Look, we love fried food as much as the next
04:47 guy or girl, but the truth is that eating lots of it can cause serious health problems
04:51 as well as an early death.
04:53 A huge analysis of multiple studies across hundreds of thousands of people determined
04:58 that those who ate the most fried foods had a 28% higher chance of having heart problems.
05:03 Also, each 4-ounce serving of fried food per week increased a person's risk factor by
05:09 3%.
05:10 According to the Mayo Clinic website, there is research suggesting that the daily consumption
05:14 of fried fish or chicken by women over 60 increased their risk of death by 13%.
05:19 We can only assume it's similar for men.
05:26 4.
05:28 Hot Dogs You might have heard about this study back
05:31 in 2021 published in the Journal of Nature Food that looked at over 5,000 foods and calculated
05:37 the amount of lifetime lost or gained by eating each one.
05:41 The researchers created a health index based on the Global Burden of Disease Study which,
05:46 according to CNN, measures morbidity associated with a person's food choices.
05:51 We won't get into all the details, but the index calculated that each beef hot dog and
05:55 bun consumed led to 36 minutes of a healthy life lost.
05:59 On the plus side, 0.1 minutes of healthy life are gained per each gram of fruit you eat.
06:05 So maybe you throw a few grapes on your hot dog to balance things out a little.
06:09 Has she really lost 10,080 minutes or 7 days of her life just from those competitions?
06:16 3.
06:17 Artificial Sweeteners So it might seem that, since sugar is so bad
06:21 for you, a smart move would be to switch over to various artificial sweeteners.
06:25 The problem with that is, artificial sweeteners are just as bad for you, if not worse.
06:31 One 2019 study published in the journal Circulation didn't mince words with its findings that
06:36 linked artificially sweetened beverages to premature death.
06:40 Also, one of the most popular artificial sweeteners, Aspartame, was recently flagged by the World
06:45 Health Organization.
06:47 Although it's been deemed safe for human consumption, in 2023, the WHO recommended
06:52 against its use based on a few systematic reviews suggesting that long-term use could
06:57 lead to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mortality in adults.
07:03 The level of risk is low, but consuming something over many years, even in a low amount, may
07:09 possibly add to the risk.
07:12 2.
07:13 Over-processed Food When the Philadelphia 76ers set a system in
07:16 place to reverse their losing ways, fans were told to trust the process.
07:21 However, when it comes to various food items, we probably shouldn't trust the processed.
07:26 Awesome dad joke aside, there is growing evidence to suggest the negative effects on our health
07:32 from the consumption of overly processed foods.
07:40 A study published in JAMA International Medicine defined ultra-processed foods as food products
07:46 that contain multiple ingredients and are manufactured through a multitude of industrial
07:50 processes.
07:51 Examples being mass-produced and packaged snacks, confectionaries, ready-made meals,
07:57 and processed meats.
07:59 What researchers found was that a 10% increase in one's intake of ultra-processed foods correlated
08:04 to a 14% higher risk of all-cause mortality.
08:32 1.
08:34 Soda The Coca-Cola company had an ad campaign in
08:37 the 1970s which included the song "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke."
08:41 Well, if they'd actually done that every day since then, there's a very good chance
08:47 the world's population would be significantly lower.
08:50 And if you thought that switching from regular to diet soda was going to make everything
08:53 better, we have some bad news for you.
08:56 It isn't.
09:02 A study published in 2019 in JAMA International Medicine looked at the link between mortality
09:07 in soft drinks in 10 European countries and the findings are kinda scary.
09:12 As little as one serving per day led to an elevated risk of mortality.
09:16 And this was true for both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks.
09:28 You know what?
09:35 I'm out.
09:45 (upbeat music)