A new study from the Lancet gives us a thorough analysis of diet and the associated health effects.
Some important findings:
- “We found that improvement of diet could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally.“
- ”Our findings show that, unlike many other risk factors, dietary risks affected people regardless of age, sex, and sociodemographic development of their place of residence.“
- ”Our findings show that suboptimal diet is responsible for more deaths than any other risks globally, including tobacco smoking, 11, 12 highlighting the urgent need for improving human diet across nations.
- ”Although sodium, sugar, and fat have been the main focus of diet policy debate in the past two decades,27, 28 our assessment shows that the leading dietary risk factors for mortality are diets high in sodium, low in whole grains, low in fruit, low in nuts and seeds, low in vegetables, and low in omega-3 fatty acids; each accounting for more than 2% of global deaths“
- “A growing body of evidence has emerged in the past decade showing that shifting diet from unhealthy animal-based foods (eg, red meat and processed meat) to healthy plant-based foods (eg, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains) might be associated with lower emission of greenhouse gases and thus might be more environmentally sustainable. 40, 41, 42, 43”
