A new study has suggested that you could be shortening your life by 36 minutes by eating just one hot dog.

Researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a new study published in Nature Food where they examined more than 5,800 foods on their environmental impact and the minutes gained or lost by eating them.

A Health Nutritional Index, a version of the 2016 Global Burden of Disease study, determined the "net beneficial or detrimental health burden in minutes of healthy life associated with a serving of food consumed."

They then broke the foods down based on "dietary risk factors and disease burdens" that had a range of between 74 minutes lost to 80 minutes gained per serving, and this was used to determine their environmental impact.

A hot dog and its ingredients. [[imagecaption|| Credit: Alamy / Atlas Studio]]

The foods were then split into coded groups - green, yellow, and red - "based on their combined nutritional and environmental performances."

Processed meats, sugary drinks, and breakfast sandwiches were all in the red category, but nuts, fruits, and certain types of fish were in the green - AKA they can add minutes onto your life.

The researchers said that the reason hot dogs are so unhealthy is "largely due to the detrimental effect of processed meat."

But if you're a peanut butter and jelly sandwich fan, it's good news, as apparently just one of these delights can add 33 minutes onto your life, and a portion of nuts will add an extra 22 minutes!

A hot dog on a plate. [[imagecaption|| Credit: Alamy / Elena Veselova]]

The study also found that small changes to your diet can have a big impact on the environment and your health.

The researchers said that "substituting 10 percent of daily caloric intake from beef and processed meats for a mix of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and select seafood could reduce your dietary carbon footprint by one-third and allow people to gain 48 minutes of healthy minutes per day."

As a result, the researchers advise anyone looking to make healthier food choices to cut out or reduce foods with "negative health and environmental impacts," and this includes "high processed meat, beef, shrimp, followed by pork, lamb and greenhouse-grown vegetables."

Featured image credit: Olga Miltsova / Alamy

Eating one hot dog could shorten life by 36 minutes, new study suggests