Poor Diets Linked to 400,000 U.S. Deaths

“Healthy breakfast with eggs while camping” by Jakub Kapusnak is licensed under CC0. March is National Nutrition Month, so it comes at the perfect time that the results from a study are released explaining that a poor diet was a contributor to 400,000 U.S. premature deaths in 2015. The study suggested that poor diets are caused not only by not avoiding certain things–like trans fat and salt–but also not incorporating other foods, like vegetables, nuts and seeds. Cardiovascular disease is the number one leading cause of death in the U.S., and a poor diet is the top risk factor, according to Dr. Ashkan Afshin, lead researcher from the University of Washington. “The study results suggest that nearly half of heart disease and stroke (cardiovascular disease) deaths in the United States might be prevented with improved diets,” according to Afshin in the MedlinePlus article. The study results stress that a healthy diet is not only avoiding certain foods–you have to take care that you are making sure to eat others. The study was even able to estimate what percent of the deaths were from too much or too little of certain foods, like 12 percent of the deaths probably could have been avoided had the people eaten more vegetables. The good news is it’s never too late to change your diet. To read more about the study, please visit “Bad Diets Tied to 400,000 U.S. Deaths in 2015.” Like NNLM SCR on Facebook and like us on Twitter.
Source: Network News - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Consumer Health General (all entries) Source Type: news