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The greatest risk to worldwide health is… according to the Huffington Post.
Obesity and diabetes are two problems that are diet borne, and they are also two problems that seem to be overtaking the world.
According to the Huffington Post, unsafe diets are making people sicker than all of the other major diseases combined. It used to be thought that it was just the American diet of fast foods was the main reason, but many of these eating habits have been exported to other countries who are now having some of the same health problems we have been accustomed to in the USA.
It’s the cheap processed meals that seem to be the largest contributor to these trends, especially in poorer countries. Many of these foods are high in sodium, sugar and simple carbohydrates that pack on the weight, while causing many diseases that are expensive to treat such as Obesity and Diabetes.
It all comes down to the quality of food.
Check out this fascinating article in the Huffington Post.
Poor Diet Is The Greatest Risk To Worldwide Health, Report Says
Obesity is climbing, and it”™s a bigger risk than you might think.
10/20/2016
Diet-related disease is not just an American problem.
Across the globe, poor diets now pose a greater collective health risk than unsafe sex, alcohol, drugs and tobacco use combined, according to a new report by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.
“œThis snuck up on us,” report co-author Patrick Webb, a nutrition professor at Tufts University and policy and evidence advisor to the panel, told The Huffington Post. “œThe key point is that poor quality of diets is now the single biggest contributor to the global burden of non-communicable disease.”
Members of the Global Panel, an independent group of food and nutrition researchers funded by the U.K. government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are worried that poorer, developing countries around the world will see a spike in diet-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. And this makes sense: Obesity rates are climbing in all 190 countries, and research shows obesity increases the risk of all these diseases.
Non-communicable diseases can be influenced or acquired by individual behavior, and, Webb argues, due to the choices people make. The report shows that even people who can otherwise access and eat healthy food are choosing food detrimental to their own health.
“œIf current trends continue,” the researchers wrote, “œthe combined number of overweight and obese individuals will increase from 1.33 billion in 2005 to 3.28 billion in 2030.”
It”™s well known in the U.S. that common barriers to fresh, healthy foods include access and cost, thus lower-income families more often reach for cheap, processed meals. Yet this study shows that being poor wherever you are in the world results in an unhealthy diet. The report noted that developing countries have the fastest growing sales for processed foods that contribute calories, sugar, salt and fat, but deliver little in the form of fruits, vegetables, legumes and protein. While more women are surviving childbirth and less children die from infectious disease, lifestyle factors such as diet, drug use, high blood pressure and high body mass index now increase risk for diabetes, heart disease and cancer. So much so that seven out of ten people die around the world due to non-communicable disease and chronic illness.
“œPoorer people in the U.S. and around the world are not consuming enough fruits, vegetables, beans and seafood,” Webb said. In some cases it”™s living in a remote area that makes getting good food a challenge, but there”™s also an uptick in the number of low-income people living in urban environments. “œWhat they can afford is the cheapest, ultra processed food, rather than perishable foods,” he said.
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