Diet is vital in reducing deaths, warn experts
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the WHO yesterday launched a report on diet that aims to reduce killer diseases.
In 2001, chronic diseases caused 59% of the 56.5 million deaths worldwide and they accounted for 46% of global illnesses.
Chronic ailments include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and dental problems.
A diet low in saturated fats, sugars and salt, and high in vegetables and fruits, together with regular physical activity, will cut down on these illnesses, the report said.
All countries must act immediately to prevent chronic diseases by promoting healthier diets and exercise, the FAO and WHO said. The study also urges governments to improve consumer information, food labelling and health education.
"Only a minority of people in the world are eating the amounts of fruit and vegetables recommended by this report," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said.
The FAO/WHO Joint Expert Report is based on the judgment of 30 independent experts who reviewed the best available evidence on diet and its effects on chronic diseases.
"We have known for a long time that foods high in saturated fats, sugars and salt, are unhealthy; and that we are, globally, increasing our intake of energy-dense, nutritionally poor food as our lives become increasingly sedentary," Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO said.
"These factors together with tobacco use are the leading causes of the great surge we have seen in the incidence of chronic diseases."
The report will be discussed by the WHO Executive Board in January 2004 and it will form part of a global strategy to tackle chronic diseases.
"We need to look decades ahead, to the health of our current and future generations throughout the globe.
"The work we are embarked upon could lead to one of the largest positive shifts in population health ever undertaken," Dr Brundtland said.
