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- Unhealthy diets are responsible for more deaths worldwide than smoking, concluded a major new study.
- We should eat more whole grains, fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables.
- Salt is the main food that we should try to consume less.
- Countries where the number of diet-related deaths is the lowest are Israel, Spain and France, where people tend to follow a Mediterranean-type diet.
- Visit the INSIDER homepage for more.
Diets without healthy foods are responsible for more deaths worldwide than smoking, concluded a major new study.
The research, published in the British newspaper The Lancet, states that about 11 million deaths a year – or one in five – are the result of a poor diet.
Diets cutting short lives have been found to be particularly high in salt and too low in whole grains and fruit.
The analysis, which is part of the Global Burden of Disease Study, allowed researchers to evaluate the diets of people in 195 countries with the help of data from surveys, sales and household spending from 1990 to 2017.
Of the 11 million dietary deaths in 2017, 10 million were due to cardiovascular disease. Cancer (913,000 deaths) and Type 2 diabetes (339,000) were the second leading causes of death related to diet.
Read more: The oldest men in Britain say the secrets to living on 111 are to eat oats and avoid dying
"This study shows that a poor diet is the leading risk factor for death in most countries of the world," said study author Ashkan Afshin, of the US. Institute of Metrology and Health Assessment of the University of Washington.
He added that unhealthy diets are "a more important determinant of poor health than tobacco or high blood pressure".
Consuming too much salt and too little whole grain has proved especially fatal, each being responsible for three million deaths.
Not eating enough fruit was also linked to two million deaths.
Salt increases blood pressure and therefore the risk of cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, whole grains, fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
We should eat more:
- Whole grains
- Fruit
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Vegetables
- Omega-3 (found in fish and seafood)
We should eat less:
- Salt
- Sugary drinks
- Processed meat
It is perhaps not surprising that countries with a Mediterranean-type diet have the lowest number of diet-related deaths: Israel, Spain and France have emerged as the top research funded by the Bill & Foundation. Melinda Gates.
In contrast, Uzbekistan, Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan recorded the largest number of diet-related deaths.
As a reminder, Israel recorded 89 diet-related deaths per 100,000 population, compared with 892 in Uzbekistan.
The United Kingdom recorded 127 diet-related deaths per 100,000 population per year, compared with 170 in the United States.
"In general, countries that have a diet close to the Mediterranean diet, which consumes more fruits, vegetables, nuts and healthy oils [including olive oil and omega-3 fatty acids from fish] are the countries where we see the smallest number of [diet-related] dead, "said Afshin.
Read more: Drinking a bottle of wine a week could increase a woman's cancer risk as much as smoking 10 cigarettes
Researchers noted that there were some limitations to their study – for example, data quality varied somewhat between countries and they also did not assess the effect of other forms of malnutrition (at know under nutrition and obesity).
However, they encourage people to focus more on add healthy foods to their diet rather than punishing them for consuming fat and sugar.
Indeed, the gap between the amount of healthy foods that people should eat and what they actually do is greater than the amount of unhealthy foods that people eat and the amount that they should consume.
For example, the average daily consumption of red meat in the world is 27 grams, while the recommended limit is 23 grams.
In contrast, the average daily consumption of nuts and seeds is only 3 grams, which is well below the recommended 21 grams.
However, food researchers really invite people to eat less salt.
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