It could be time for President Donald Trump to put down his emotional support Diet Coke, as drinking a single can of soda can apparently shave an alarming amount of time off your lifespan.
In 2025, it's a minefield of what we can and can't eat. Eat more fiber but not too much, consume more protein but not too much, drink more water, but it could be deadly. There's apparently an alarming rise in colon cancer cases, and as we can see the shocking effects that eating ultra-processed foods can do to our bodies, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to make 'America Healthy Again'.
We obviously know the impacts of what smoking a cigarette can do in terms of your lifespan, but you might not realize that you could be chugging minutes away just by picking up a refreshing can of your favorite soft drink.
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A worrying study from the University of Michigan looked into how much time processed food and drinks can take off your life. Looking at 5,800 foods and ranking them based on their effects on how much time they could take off your life, the team looked at fats, calories, sugar content, and additives per gram, adjusting them to a standard serving size to create a Health Nutritional Index.
Writing in The Conversation, co-authors Katerina Stylianou and Olivier Jolliet said: "On a daily basis, it's hard to know how much individual choices, such as buying mixed greens at the grocery store or ordering chicken wings at a sports bar, might translate to overall personal and environmental health. That's the gap we hope to fill with our research."
Before you go reaching for a can of soda, you'll be shocked to learn it could be costing you 12 minutes of your life. Considering Donald Trump has a special button just for ringing Diet Coke to the Oval Office, and remembering Elon Musk's diet was once said to include eight cans of the brown stuff a day, both might want to reconsider.
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We already know that Diet Coke can have an unexpected effect on the body, although it's important to note that the University of Michigan study doesn't directly name the beverage and simply refers to sodas in general. A Diet Coke doesn't contain the same sugars as a classic Coke, but it does include aspartame.
A can of soda might be taking 12 minutes off your life, but that's nothing compared to prosciutto costing you 24 minutes, or what about a hot dog losing a whopping 36 minutes?
Not everything will see you shuffling closer to the grave, with a 30g serving of nuts and seeds said to add 25 minutes to a healthy life. Importantly, swapping just 10% of your daily calorific intake of beef and processed meats for a mix of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and certain seafoods could add 48 minutes to your life every day.
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Jolliet concluded: "Our findings demonstrate that small, targeted substitutions offer a feasible and powerful strategy to achieve significant health and environmental benefits without needing dramatic dietary shifts."