Poor Diet: The Biggest Killer

Heart disease is the biggest killer by far, but what is one of the biggest contributors that lead to heart disease, poor diet.

We have all heard the saying, “you are what you eat,” how true it is. If you eat healthy food you will be healthy, if you eat unhealthy food you will be unhealthy. Now, remember, one healthy meal will not make you healthy, just like one unhealthy meal will not make you unhealthy.

I know this guy who really doesn’t take care of himself; he smokes and eats junk food. But every now and then I see him eating an apple or an orange and he says to me, “look I’m eating healthy,”  like that one piece of fruit is gonna make him a healthy person. When he gets his first heart attack he’ll probably say, “I should have listened to Chris,” because I am always lecturing him about his health.

What you eat — and don’t eat — may pose a bigger threat to your health than smoking, drinking, and other common risk factors for premature death. An extensive new study on diet trends around the globe ties poor diet to 11 million deaths around the world in 2017.

More than one-half of those deaths were connected with eating too much salt, and not enough whole grains and fruits. The research, published in April 2019 in the journal The Lancet, reported that bad diets mostly contributed to deaths linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

They looked at 15 dietary factors — diets low in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, milk, fiber, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids from seafood, polyunsaturated fats, and diets high in red meat, processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fatty acids, and sodium.

“When we ranked all of these risk factors — poor dietary factors overall ranked as the most important risk factor for mortality globally, causing more deaths than any other risk factor, including tobacco use, high systolic blood pressure, and alcohol use.”

“High salt intake appears to be the number one association with premature death throughout the developed world,” says David Katz, MD, MPH, founder, and president of the True Health Initiative. “I think the reason for that is about 80 percent of the sodium we consume has nothing to do with our salt shakers but is essentially universal in processed food. Our tolerance for processed food can be lethal.”

“One of the things that I wrestle with all the time in my work is how many times we have to tell people the same thing,” he says. “I will put it in blunt terms — when it comes to diet, we refuse to grow up. I hope more people get it this time. The memo is not new — eating poorly not only siphons years from life but life from years.”

Funny how I and the doctor have come to the same conclusion, like that old saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”  In other words, you can preach to people about eating healthy until you are blue in the face, but if they really don’t care about taking care of their health, they just won’t do it.

Let me finish by saying, starting on a healthy diet is great, but you have to combine it with exercise if you want to get the maximum result, which is all-around health and fitness.