The Western nations are good at two things, war and junk foods. Both kill large numbers of people, and both make big profits for the companies that surreptitiously pay for the governments through their lobby money. The low quality foods supplied to the inhabitants of the Western nations arguably cause more death than the cruise missiles and other weapons of mass destruction that seem now to be dropped indiscriminately on innocent civilians. The difference between the two is that while it is difficult to ignore a cruise missile slamming into your village and killing your entire family, the death brought about by low quality Western foods is somewhat more subtle in its effects. The link between the low quality foods and the diseases of the West is now firmly established. In particular, high intakes of fructose, refined carbohydrates, trans fatty acids and processed meats are all known drivers of disease, while inadequate levels of micronutrients and fibre exacerbates the metabolic dysfunction of these disease causing foods.
A number of observational studies have investigated the effects of diet quality on mortality. For example, in one study1, researchers used two measures of a high quality diet (the Alternative Healthy Eating Index and the food-based a priori diet quality score) to determine if diet quality was associated with mortality in postmenopausal women. The results of the study showed that both dietary assessments were able to predict total mortality, mortality from cardiovascular disease and inflammatory-related mortality. In addition the food-based a priori diet quality score was able to predict cancer mortality. In another study2, researchers assessed the dose response effects of fruits and vegetable consumption with mortality in healthy Swedish men and women. Compared to those who consumed 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables, a lower intakes was associated with higher mortality and shorter survival times. Those who infrequently consumed fruits and vegetables lived 3 years younger, on average.
Therefore evidence for the association between high quality diets, containing large amounts of plant foods, and mortality rates can be found in the nutritional literature. The second of these studies is interesting because the authors estimated that eating fruit just once per day extended life by 19 months, and eating fruits and vegetables 3 times per day extended life by 32 months. Plant foods contain a number of substances that can explain their life extending properties. As well as containing a range of phytochemicals that have beneficial biological effects against disease, plants also contain high amounts of micronutrients and fibre, both of which are disease preventative. In addition, consuming plants often necessitates removing other less healthy foods from the diet, and these other foods can contain metabolic poisons such as refined crystalline fructose and trans fatty acids. Some high quality diets such as the Maasai diet contain little plant material, but because they are absent of metabolic poisons they do not drive disease.
Dr Robert Barrington’s Nutritional Recommendation: The link between diet quality and disease is firmly established. Eating a high quality diet that contains large amounts of plants foods with their original fibre and micronutrient content as well as high quality protein sources is pivotal in preventing disease. The Mediterranean diet consistently proves to be an effective antidote to the modern Western lifestyle diseases and following a diet based on traditional Mediterranean eating practices is recommended.
RdB
