What You're Not Eating Is Killing You

Don’t feel bad about your $12 avocado toast. Have it on whole grain with a side of fruit, and consider your life lengthened.

When governments urge you to regulate your diet, they usually focus on limiting the intake of unhealthy foods, such as processed meat, sugar and trans fat. Less emphasis is placed on encouraging people to eat more of nutritious foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Limiting unhealthy foods might not be the best approach, a new study said.

A bad diet kills more people globally than tobacco, according to research published Wednesday in the Lancet. It concluded that a better diet could potentially prevent one in five deaths globally.

In 2017, a poor diet was responsible for 11 million deaths, whether related to excessive consumption of bad foods or inadequate intake of the good stuff, the study said. Specifically, three main dietary factors—low consumption of whole grains and fruits and high intake of sodium—accounted for more than half of all diet-related deaths.

While high consumption of red meat, processed meat, trans fat and sugar-sweetened beverages did contribute to global deaths, these factors “were towards the bottom in ranking dietary risks … for most high-population countries,” the report found. Policies encouraging healthful eating, therefore, may have greater impacts than those targeting unhealthy foods.

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