
Poor Diet Linked to Heart Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mortality Rates
"You are what you eat" is a phrase that we have heard for years and years. Although this message may be stale at this point, it does make sense logically. Without nourishment, we could not survive. The types of food we eat and don't eat can play a role in our energy, mood, sleep, and overall well-being. Food is such an essential part of living that, over time, our daily choices can influence health.
In fact, poor diet has already been linked to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, to name a few. But, could how you eat be more directly linked to your mortality? A recent study suggests that there may be a connection.
The study, titled "Association Between Dietary Factors and Mortality From Heart Disease, Stroke, and Type 2 Diabetes in the United States" and published in the American Journal of Medicine, concluded that in 2012, there were 702,308 cardiometabolic deaths in the United States, including those from heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Of those people, almost half of them (45.4 percent) had a suboptimal intake of certain nutrients. Diet seemed to be linked most strongly to mortality in men (48.6 percent), people between the ages of 25-34 (64.2 percent), African Americans (53.1 percent), and Hispanic people (50.0 percent).
Each of the dietary factors were assessed based on two 24-hour food recalls, and all dietary intake was adjusted for total calorie consumption to reduce measurement error.
Self-reported demographics including, age, gender, race, ethnicity, and education were taken into consideration.
What the Study Tells Us
The
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