I read a great report about it in the Guardian. The study, based at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, compiles data from every country in the world and makes informed estimates where there are gaps. 

The data has been taken from 5 papers on the risk factors and causes of death and illness, published in the Lancet Medical Journal. 

So I dutifully clicked on the link to find out more. The purpose of the study, which has been ongoing since 1990, is to predict what will happen in the future, based on past performance and set goals for the future. 

Now although I’m interested in what’s happening in the rest of the world I figured those numbers could be pretty skewed due to malnutrition in third world countries so I wanted to know if poor diet was the main reason for deaths in the UK and North America?

 
Table key:

ALZ - Alzheimer’s
Col Cancer – Cancer of the colon and rectum
COPD - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – Damaged lungs and airways mainly due to smoking
DAI - Diabetes
IHD - Ischaemic (coronary) heart disease
LRI – Lower respiratory infection – flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis

OK, so road injuries, COPD and self-harm apart, we know that most of these chronic diseases are preventable with good nutrition, so poor diet is definitely playing a big part in our mortality rates.

People are eating the wrong foods, it’s as simple as that. Lots of over processed ready meals and fast food, and we get it, people are time poor but surely your health now and in the future matters more than a few minutes of your time now?

The problem is until people know which foods will give them the nutrients they need to stay healthy and learn how to incorporate them into a healthy home cooked diet things won’t change.

 
Jamie Oliver is doing great things in the UK encouraging people to eat well, but you have to be proactive.

Well, as we keep saying you need to start improving your diet NOW, start paying into your Health Pension before it’s too late! 

We are reaping the rewards of a better diets already with fewer illnesses and a greatly improved recovery time if we do catch a bug. Our friends are amazed at how quickly we are back to health when they are down for way longer. 

As we reported in our dementia blog, people are living longer in the UK, life expectancy for a man is 79, and for a woman 83, but many years in later life are spent in ill health. 

Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England, talking to the Guardian said the studies show how quickly diet and obesity-related disease is spreading around the world. “I don’t think people realise how quickly the focus is shifting towards non-communicable disease [such as cancer, heart disease and stroke] and diseases that come with development, in particular related to poor diet. The numbers are quite shocking in my view,” he said.

“In the UK, the concern is particularly about the increase in ill-health that prevents people from working or having a fulfilling life”, said Newton. “A man in the UK born in 2016 can expect only 69 years in good health and a woman 71 years”.

Are you ready to make the change to your diet, so that you’ll live a longer healthier life? 

YES, then sign up for FREE to CheckYourFood and learn which nutrients are missing from your diet by keeping a food diary. 

Learn about nutrition along the way as you check out those nutrients and see which foods you need to eat more of. 

Analyse your own recipes and see if you can improve the nutrition in them. Or simply choose a great recipe from the site to add to your repertoire. 

There’s so much to do on CheckYourFood!