Dutch researchers are the first in the world to suggest that eating poorly is equivalent to smoking in terms of your health. Drawing such a drastic parallel may be necessary as a wake-up call for people in our society who continue to eat high-fat, high-cholesterol, and high-sugar meals without giving a thought to the harm they are causing their bodies.
Specifically, the researchers claim that not eating enough fish, vegetables, and fruit is as bad for the body as actively smoking tobacco. Of serious illnesses, as well as deaths in the Netherlands, they concluded that most have been triggered by a poor diet that lacks these critical and nutritious foods.
Also, if you’re thinking that the Netherlands and the United States are very different countries when it comes to health, this isn’t so, as people in both countries eat heavy amounts of meat and both populations have high levels of obesity.
It is when you take into account the years of living with serious disability (osteoporosis, hip fracture, obesity, severe arthritis, etc.) that a poor diet causes as much health loss as smoking does. The study found that an unhealthy diet reduces the life expectancy of a middle-aged adult by 1.2 years while obesity claims another 0.8 years.
Each year in the Netherlands, unhealthy eating directly causes 13,000 deaths from the illnesses it can result in: diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Obesity — also an offshoot of unhealthy eating — claims another 7,000 lives through heart disease and cancer.
Here’s the deal: three-quarters of the population of the Netherlands eat far below the recommended levels of fruit and vegetables, as an extensive research project uncovered. Produce is medicine; it contains a bounty of nutrients that act in a variety of ways, shielding your body from disease and keeping it working properly.
The fatty acids found in fish are among the healthiest nutrients on earth, as omega-3s are heart boosters. In contrast, saturated and trans fats come from animal fats, and they raise your level of cholesterol and risk of heart disease. So do most processed oils.
The researchers believe that 25% of deaths and illnesses caused by obesity and poor eating could be avoided if everybody simply shed 6.6 pounds. Over time, that isn’t a tall order. The answer is pretty easy to see: people in the Netherlands, on average, eat 50% more meat than the recommended levels. Start upping your intake of fish and produce, and cut down on your meat intake, and you will lessen the damage to your body that is on par with lighting up cigarettes and inhaling.
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Tags: foods for diabetics, obesity
