How Poor Diet Has Become The Biggest Cause Of Early Death

POOR diet has overtaken poor sanitation as the biggest cause of early death around the world, according to a study.

One in five deaths are attributable to diets lacking in fruit and vegetables but rich in sugar and red meat, researchers found.

In 1990 child and maternal malnutrition, unsafe water, sanitation, and lack of hand washing were the leading causes of premature death.

But the these have been overtaken by preventable risk-factors such as bad diet and high blood pressure, which reflect an increasing prevalence of processed food in the Western world which present.

The study was carried out by researchers from the Global Burden of Disease project, the Huffington Post reports.

Studying the mortality rates in 188 countries in the period between 1990 and 2013, they observed 79 risk factors.

They found that the top risks were from smoking, poor diet and related conditions, such as high blood pressure, high body mass index and raised blood sugar levels.

These risk factors alone contributed to nearly 31million global deaths in 2013, the research showed – an increase from 25million in 1990.

The researchers are calling on people to change their lifestyle to improve their diet and general fitness and thus cut the risk of dying prematurely.

‘There’s great potential to improve health by avoiding certain risks like smoking and poor diet as well as tackling environmental risks like air pollution,’ said Dr Christopher Murray from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which led the study.

'The challenge for policymakers will be to use what we know to guide prevention efforts and health policies.’

Picture courtesy of Rex Features