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Contributor to one's early death? Poor diet!

There is clearly something in the saying that you are what you eat!    It may also be that your poor diet makes you a candidate for an early death.     In fact, poor diet is the #1 contributor to early death of people around the world.

"Poor diet has emerged as the biggest contributor to early death around the world, according to new analysis from the leading authorities on the global disease, with red meat and sugar-sweetened beverages among the foods implicated in 21% of global deaths.

Smoking cigarettes still carries the highest risk factor of premature death in the UK, followed by high blood pressure and obesity. But the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) in the US says that a combination of dietary factors, from eating too few fruit and vegetables, nuts and whole grains to too much sodium and cholesterol, is taking a toll on health in the UK and across the globe.

The IMHE’s study found that the biggest contributor to early death globally is high blood pressure, in which age and family history play a part, but so do obesity, smoking, excessive salt consumption, lack of exercise and drinking large amounts of alcohol. In the UK, alcohol is also one of the top ten risk factors associated with the highest number of deaths for both men and women.

The study looked at 14 dietary risk factors. Cumulatively, unhealthy eating, including diets low in fruit, whole grains, and vegetables, and diets high in red meat and sugar-sweetened beverages contributed to more deaths than any other factor, causing ischemic heart disease, stroke and diabetes."


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