Processed meat

What it does

Only 50 g a day — a couple of slices — carries the same cost as 100 g of red meat.

• The strongest cut-signal we have

Where the number comes from

Processed meat sits in the procmeat group of the Fadnes model, the only peer-reviewed model that converts eating into years of life. The lifetime gain for that group is spread across the days you actually eat it — a daily serving from age 20 to 80 — which gives −42 min per serving. The authors rate the evidence behind this group as moderate.

How to eat it

Gram for gram, the costliest thing on the plate.

Source: Fadnes et al. · PLOS Medicine, 2022 (meta-analysis).

Minutes derived from Fadnes LT, Økland J-M, Haaland ØA, Johansson KA. Estimating impact of food choices on life expectancy: A modeling study. PLOS Medicine 19(2):e1003889, 2022. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003889