When You Hire a Burger, Are You Paying with More Than Money?
Updated: Oct 13
Why We're Sharing This
We hire burgers for taste, convenience, comfort, and pleasure. But what if the price goes beyond what's on the receipt?
In this thought-provoking article, Dr. Michael Greger explores research linking red and processed meat consumption to reduced life expectancy. Using the concept of microlives, he illustrates how dietary risks can be translated into estimated minutes of life lost.
These are population-level estimates, not predictions of how many minutes any individual burger will cost you. Still, they raise an interesting question about the long-term performance of our favourite foods.
The Hire Your Food Question
When a cheeseburger interviews for dinner, our taste buds may enthusiastically approve the candidate.
But what if our Heart, Arteries, and Future Self were also sitting at the interview table?
Would the cheeseburger still get the job or might a bean burger deserve an interview?
Read the Original Article
How Many Minutes of Life Does a Burger Cost?
Michael Greger, MD, NutritionFacts.org, September 22, 2026.
Food for Thought is curated by Paul and Christiane Robillard, authors of Hire Your Food. We share independent reporting and research that invite us to rethink the foods we hire and the jobs we ask them to do.
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