A study done by the medical journal, The Lancet, discovered that a bad diet is actually more likely to kill you than smoking. Meaning, if you smoke and have a bad diet every day, you’ll probably die due to a diet-caused disease than a smoking-caused one. Let’s get into more details about this study.
The Lancet is, in fact, a weekly, peer-reviewed, general medical journal. It’s one of the most accurate ones, and it has done so many studies on smoking and diets. For years, smoking was known to be the most dangerous habit, and the number one cause of death, but as time went on, it seems like its position as such, is climbing down the ladder. However, vaping has a higher rank than smoking, and apparently, bad diets.
Researchers reviewed the eating habits of people from across 195 countries, to evaluate how much bad diets affect their lifespan. The study concluded that 1 in 5 deaths in the world are related to poor diet, meaning 11 million people yearly. On the other hand, 8 million, die yearly because of using tobacco. Also, poor diets cause cardiovascular diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and much more.
The most healthy countries according to the study are countries that follow a Mediterranean diet, like Spain, Lebanon, and France. Dying due to a heart attack or a stroke is a result of eating too many salty or sugary foods. Another study showed that 3 million deaths were related to sodium.
However, it isn’t just about what you’re eating, it’s also about what you’re not eating, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and omega-3 fatty seafood! These foods are the most healthy foods. On the contrary, unhealthy foods are sugar-sweetened beverages, unprocessed red meat, and cholesterol. Below, is a table that shows the recommended amounts of each food group and what people actually do.
This is not to say that smoking isn’t harmful, or even remotely as harmful, there are thousands of articles indicating just that. This is, rather, to say, that instead of only obsessing about the “obvious,” unhealthy habits, we must realize that the ones that go unnoticed, such as bad diets, are also equally, if not more, likely to lead to death.