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Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Randy
The Global Burden of Disease Study cited diet as the number one cause of death and disability in the United States. Obesity is likely the main preventable cause of premature death. Low-carb diets based on animal foods, red meat consumption, milk, and eggs appear associated with higher mortality. Having high blood levels of phosphorus, which can come from junk food and meat, is an independent predictor for mortality. Declining kidney function, excess uric acid, and earlier puberty, each linked to higher mortality risk, can all be worsened by excess animal food intake. Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption and not enough antioxidant-rich plant food appear to kill millions around the globe every year.
Consumption of plant foods appears associated with lower mortality risk. Studies have suggested that adherence to a Mediterranean diet, which has less meat than the standard diet, is associated with a significant reduction of mortality risk. Studies have shown that more fruit, more greens, more polyphynol phytonutrients from plant food, more nuts, and less salt are associated with a significantly lower risk of dying. Specific foods that studies have associated with longevity are legumes, flax seed, and coffee. One analysis concluded that mortality from all causes put together is significantly lower in those eating meat-free diets.
A national effort in Finland to reduce saturated fat intake from animal foods helped reduce the all-cause mortality rate by 45%. Eliminating partially hydrogenated oils from the food supply could prevent thousands of deaths every year. Meal preparation may be a factor: a 10-year study showed those who cooked at home most frequently had 59% of the mortality risk.
Most foodborne illness related deaths are attributed to poultry. A major 2012 study found that multivitamin intake had no effect on mortality rates. In fact, Vitamin E supplements specifically appear to increase all-cause mortality. Sufficient Vitamin D intake from the sun or from Vitamin D supplements may help lower mortality risk.
Physical inactivity ranks fifth as a risk factor for death. Daily time spent sitting appears linked with total mortality, regardless of formal exercise level. Research suggests that both not enough and too much sleep are associated with increased mortality, with about seven hours being best for lifespan.
A 2011 analysis showed that while Americans are living longer, we also are living fewer healthy years than we used to. Adding deaths from medication side effects to those from staff errors, unnecessary surgeries, medical facility-sourced infections, and other health care-related fatalities shows the U.S. medical system to be the third leading cause of death in the country.
Cardiologists can criminally game the system by telling a patient they have a much more serious, unstable disease than they really have, fraud that results in unnecessary procedures, unnecessary cost, and unnecessary patient harm.
Over and over, studies have shown that doctors tend to make different clinical decisions for patients based on how much they will get paid personally.
Sham surgery trials prove that procedures like nonemergency stents offer no benefit for angina pain—only risk to millions of patients.
What do physicians and stent companies have to say for themselves, given that they are promoting expensive, risky procedures with no benefit?
Why are doctors killing or stroking out thousands of people a year for nothing? How do doctors even convince patients to sign up for procedures that are all risk without benefit?
There are demonstrably no benefits to the hundreds of thousands of angioplasty and stent procedures performed outside of an emergency setting. They don’t prevent heart attacks, enable you to live longer, or even help with symptoms any more than placebo (fake) surgery.
If the nitrites in foods like ham and bacon cause lung damage, what about “uncured” meat with “no nitrites added”?
What are the different impacts of plant protein versus animal protein, and do the benefits of plant proteins translate to plant protein isolates?
How does sorghum compare with other grains in terms of protein, antioxidants, and micronutrients? And the benefits of red sorghum compared to black and white varieties.
Increased risk of metabolic complications starts at an abdominal circumference of 31.5 inches in women and 37 inches in most men, though it’s closer to 35.5 inches for South Asian, Chinese, and Japanese men.
How do we explain studies that suggest overweight individuals live longer?
What are the effects of weight loss on natural killer cell function, our first line of immune defense against cancer, as well as kidney function and fatty liver disease?
