Insufficient consumption of fish, fruit and vegetables is as bad for human health as smoking, according to a Dutch report released Monday.
The study, which the European Food Safety Authority says it will use when analyzing food and diet risks, concludes that most cases of serious illness and death in the Netherlands are caused by poor diet.
“Taking into account not just deaths but also years spent living with serious disability, unhealthy dietary habits cause as much health loss as does smoking,” said the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).
“Unhealthy diet composition currently reduces the average life expectancy of 40-year-old Dutch by 1.2 years, while obesity claims 0.8 years,” the report continued.
Some 75 percent of the Netherlands’ 16 million people eat fruit and vegetables below the recommended level, said the report, which is a result of an extensive research into the effects of current food trends in the country. JUST LIKE THE USA!
Each year in the Netherlands, poor diet causes about 13,000 deaths due to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, while obesity claims 7,000 lives by causing heart disease and cancer, it said.
By comparison, food borne infections cause between 20 and 200 deaths each year.
The RIVM researchers recommend that governments around the world start to encourage a healthy diet to improve public health, rather than trying to improve food safety.
“In particular, attempts at reducing saturated and trans fatty acid uptake and increasing fish, fruit and vegetables consumption could save many lives,” the report said.
Saturated and trans fatty acids — which come from animal fats, tropical oils such as coconut and palm oils as wells as processed vegetable oils — raise the levels of cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.
This is a different angle but if we eat really well we are probably doing more to change our illnesses of the future than anything else that we have control. In other words, eat close to the tree and have less disease and live longer. Eat close to the man made food processing tree and disease will catch you faster.
Dr. Benzinger
