The Typical American Diet Is Our Biggest Enemy
The largest study in more than 15 years of U.S. health, disease, and death was recently published. Titled “The State of U.S. Health, 1990-2010,” it compiled data on millions of Americans. It also compared U.S. data with 33 other countries. Here are highlights.
- Our biggest risk factor for disease, disability, and death is our diet. What we eat in America is more dangerous to our health than anything else. (See this graph.)
- Our second, third, and four biggest enemies are tobacco smoking, high body mass index (excess weight), and high blood pressure.
- We are living a little longer in 2010 compared to 1990, but we are “not necessarily in good health,” wrote lead author Christopher Murray, MD, of the University of Washington, who worked with a team of more than 120 scientists from leading research universities nationwide. The number of healthy years that an individual in America loses to disability increased from 9.4 years to 10.1 years. “Morbidity and chronic disability now account for nearly half of the health burden in the United States.”
- Diseases and injuries with the largest number of years of life lost due to early death are ischemic heart disease (clogged arteries), lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and road injuries.
- In many counties in the United States, life expectancy showed no improvement over the past two decades, particularly for women. In parts of the rural South and Appalachia, life expectancies are lower than Bangladesh for males and Algeria for females.
- America is not keeping pace with other wealthy nations. “The United States spends the most per capita on health care across all countries, lacks universal health coverage, and lags behind other high-income countries for life expectancy and many other health outcome measures,” summarized the report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and Population Health Metrics.
- Among 34 countries worldwide that were studied, the United States ranks 27th in life expectancy.