When I read this, I was almost astonished. I say almost, because these new facts do not change my understanding of the status of Americans health today. This was not a fly by night study. This study was an April 2009 study done by the Harvard School of Public health. You can read it here. Basically the new study finds hundreds of thousands of deaths each year are due to dietary, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors. Here is a break down of the causes:
Smoking: 467,000
High blood pressure: 395,000
Overweight-obesity: 216,000
Inadequate physical activity and inactivity: 191,000
High blood sugar: 190,000
High LDL cholesterol: 113,000
High dietary salt: 102,000
Low dietary omega-3 fatty acids (seafood): 84,000
High dietary Trans fatty acids: 82,000
Alcohol use: 64,000 (alcohol use averted a balance of 26,000 deaths from heart disease, stroke and diabetes, because moderate drinking reduces risk of these diseases. But these deaths were outweighed by 90,000 alcohol-related deaths from traffic and other injuries, violence, cancers and a range of other diseases).
Low intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000
Low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000
Let’s break these numbers down a bit into simple facts that we can get our minds around
Smoking causes 20% of all deaths in the US.
You have a 1 in 6 chance of dying from High blood pressure.
Obesity whacks 17%.
High blood pressure kills 5x as many women as breast cancer
High blood sugar killed 3x as many people as alcohol
This adds up to over 1 MILLION deaths a year or 45% of all deaths in America attributed to poor dietary choices.
I have to say. I am happy to see more and more reputable institutions coming out with these studies to show that we are killing ourselves. We have to realize that people are making billions off of keeping us sick. Make no mistake, Big business like pharmaceutical and The Dairy and Beef Associations are not in business to protect our health. They are out to make money. They will do it any way they can. Milk does NOT do a body good. If you do not believe me, read this article. It will change your mind
I ask you to start getting informed about what is being put into your body. All the information is out there. Just be mindful of who is writing or paying for the study. I guarantee that the dairy association is not going foot the bill for an article to tell you that they allow a certain percentage of PUS in the milk. They won’t tell you about the concoction of cancer causing agents that is in milk. They are smart. They followed the lead of tobacco companies in the 70’s and 80’s. Market to the kids. They are in our schools and their trenches are deep. I can here people now…. If I don’t drink milk, where am I going to get my calcium and vitamin D? Well. It is a scientific fact that milk actually leaches calcium from your bones. YES. What I will say it again. When it is all said and done. Your body uses it stores of calcium to deal with all the acid that is milk. As far as Vitamin D, get out in the sun for 10 minutes. Your skin produces vitamin D from the UVB rays from the sun
Our diets are killing us. We need to better understand what heath really means. The people that make the guidelines are not out to protect us. They are there for big business. Don't take my word for it. Search for yourself. It's all out there.
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