All the major news media outlets are reporting on this story today as if it’s some big surprise. But is it really surprising that a diet high in sodium, processed food, and sugary beverages and low in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables leads to millions of deaths worldwide?
The new study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published in The Lancet yesterday, investigated the burden of a diet devoid of healthy foods and its effect on non-communicable diseases.
Non-communicable diseases, also referred to as chronic diseases, are those that are the result of “genetic, psychological, environmental, and behavioral factors,” opposed to being caused by bacteria or other microbial agent. For example, you don’t “catch” heart disease from someone – you develop the disease as a result of factors like what you eat and what genes your parents passed on to you.
More on non-communicable diseases from the World Health Organization.
Researchers evaluated consumption of major foods and nutrients across all of the world’s 195 countries in adults 25 and older, analyzing how a diet lacking healthy food impacts mortality and morbidity.
Note: I didn’t realize that there were 195 countries in the world until I googled it to see how many countries were missing from the study. Here’s one of many resources that said 195 is the correct number.
They took a “comparative risk assessment approach” that accounted for:
- Intake of each dietary factor
- Effect size of dietary factor on disease endpoint
- Level of intake associated with the lowest risk of mortality
Diet factors include:
- Unhealthy red and processed meats
- Sugar-sweetened beverages
- Trans fatty acids
- Salt
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Whole grains
- Milk
- Calcium
- Nuts and seeds
- Fiber
- Legumes and beans
- Omega-3 fatty acids and other polyunsaturated fatty acids
They found that the top three dietary risk factors associated with non-communicable disease are high sodium intake, low whole grains intake, and low fruit intake. These three dietary factors account for more than half of all deaths attributable to diet.
The report showed that the same risks associated with poor dietary choices affected people regardless of age, sex, and “sociodemographic development of place of residence.”
Finally, the study calls attention to the importance of acting in light of these and other similar findings. Experts call for dietary interventions based on evidence, a way to evaluate health and efficacy of dietary interventions on a regular basis. Past efforts have focused largely on salt, sugar, and fat. While high intake of those things definitely isn’t good for health, the current study highlights a second issue, one that now seems more important: yes, lowering intake of salt, but also increasing intake of healthy foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based options.
ScienceKara.com 