Poor diet linked to 1 in 5 deaths globally

PARIS: One in five deaths globally are linked to poor diet, experts said on Thursday, warning that overconsumption of sugar, salt and meat was killing millions of people every year. The United Nations estimates that nearly a billion people worldwide are malnourished, while nearly two billion are "overnourished".

But the latest study on global diet trends, published in The Lancet, showed that in nearly every one of the 195 countries surveyed, people were also eating too much of the wrong types of food -- and consuming worryingly low levels of healthier produce.

For example, the world on average consumes more than ten times the recommended amount of sugar-sweetened beverages, and 86 percent more sodium per person than is considered safe.

The study, which examined consumption and disease trends between 1990-2017, also cautioned that too many people were eating far too few whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Of the 11 million deaths attributed to poor diet, by far the largest killer was cardiovascular disease, which is often caused or worsened by obesity. "This study affirms what many have thought for several years -- that poor diet is responsible for more deaths than any other risk factor in the world," said study author Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. "Our assessment suggests the leading dietary risk factors are high intake of sodium, or low intake of health foods."