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The World's Leading Cause of Death? A Bad Diet (nbc12.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
"A bad diet kills more people globally than tobacco," reports Bloomberg, citing a new study
funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published Wednesday in Lancet. The study argues that poor diets led to 11 million deaths in 2017 -- and that more than half of them were caused by just three main dietary factors: low consumption of whole grains, low consumption of fruits, and high intake of sodium.
In fact, bad diets are responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other cause, the researchers concluded. "We found that improvement of diet could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally."
In fact, bad diets are responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other cause, the researchers concluded. "We found that improvement of diet could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally."
I'm saying that everyone is going to die some day. It doesn't matter what you eat, how you exercise, etc. You could be the healthiest eater in the world and you're still going to die at some point. You might last a few more years than others but you're not going to stop it by changing your diet.
Articles like this try and give you the idea that if you do this or that, you're going to prevent your death. This one actually says a better diet will prevent 1 in 5 deaths globally. I'm pretty sure all 5 out of 5 are going to die at some point. It's just a matter of time.
Maybe if the article gave a chart of life expectencies of people based on diets or lifestyles it might be more accurate. But claiming that your death will be prevented is just wrong.
If you eat "whole grains", the body just sees a bunch of sugar.
If you eat "fruits", the body just sees a bunch of sugar—the worst kind, in fact: fructose.
Not quite... You might find this interesting: Sugar: The Bitter Truth (90min)
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.
The video is a university lecture describing fructose metabolism in great detail and how it's similar to that of alcohol metabolism, without the self-limiting effects of alcohol consumption, and it's affects on blood lipids and fatty liver, etc... Basically, sugar bound up with fiber is (way) less destructive than sugar alone -- i.e., Apple/Orange okay, Apple/Orange Juice not okay.
In addition, fructose can *only* be metabolized by the liver whereas glucose can be metabolized by every cell in the body. Sugar itself isn't necessarily bad and it's more about what how much, what type and how it's processed and how fast it's processed by the body.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .