We all know smoking is bad and it is less and less socially acceptable in this country all the time. But a recently released report tells us that junk food is perhaps even a greater evil than smoking! The United States ranks 53rd in the world for life expectancy. We are far behind many countries that have a higher per capita consumption of cigarettes! The bottom line – junk food is killing us and is a bigger risk factor for poor health than other risk factors including smoking. For more information on the dangers of junk food please read NPR’s story on this report:
“Diet and nutrition are now the biggest risk factors for people’s health across the globe, even in poorer countries.”
“If you look at all the diet-related risk factors for health, they outweigh the burden of all of the other risk factors combined,” says Lawrence Haddad, an author on the report and formerly, a senior fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute. The other risk factors include unsafe sex, alcohol, drug and tobacco use.
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Guiding Principles
