UK Study Shows Bad Diets & Toxic Food Are Doing More Damage to Public Health Tha

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UK Study Shows Bad Diets & Toxic Food Are Doing More Damage to Public

Health Than Smoking

 

Alliance for Natural Health

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/index.cfm?action=news & ID=206

11/15/05

 

UK food more costly to health than smoking

 

A new study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

shows that food-related ill health costs the UKs National Health Service 6

billion a year and contributes to 10% of the mortality and illness, around

four times the 1.5 billion associated with smoking.

 

This important study attempts to quantify the real economic burden of

food-related disease in the UK. Dramatically, it reveals that,

probably even

conservatively, that food-related illness creates an economic burden

on the

health service over three times greater than that caused by smoking. The

authors of the report suggest that the importance of food-related illness

have been neglected by policy-makers.

 

Click here <http://jech.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/59/12/1054>

for the

full paper. The abstract and conclusions of the paper are given below.

 

One wonders how long it will take policy-makers to appreciate that a much

more proactive approach to dealing with this issue is required. And when

will they appreciate that appropriate use of supplementation is one of the

best ways of guaranteeing optimum levels of nutrients that are associated

with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, the two greatest

disease burdens in western countries?

___________

 

STUDY ABSTRACT

 

Study objective: To quantify the burden of ill health in the UK that

can be

attributed to food (the burden of food related ill health).

 

Design: Review and further analysis of the results of work concerned with

estimates of the burden of disease measured as morbidity, mortality,

and in

financial terms and with the proportion of that burden that can be

attributed to food.

 

Main results: Food related ill health is responsible for about 10% of

morbidity and mortality in the UK and costs the NHS about 6 billion

annually.

 

Conclusions: The burden of food related ill health measured in terms of

mortality and morbidity is similar to that attributable to smoking.

The cost

to the NHS is twice the amount attributable to car, train, and other

accidents, and more than twice that attributable to smoking. The vast

majority of the burden is attributable to unhealthy diets rather than to

food borne diseases.

 

STUDY CONCLUSIONS

 

That food related ill health is responsible for about 10% of DALYs

(disability adjusted life years) lost in the UK and costs the NHS about 6

billion annually are obviously crude estimates. Nevertheless they are

probably reasonable.

 

The estimates suggest that the burden of food related ill health is large,

compared with say smoking, and suggest that food related ill health

has been

neglected by health and food policy makers. For example while there are

specific government targets for smoking in England there are no equivalent

dietary targets, the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease

has a specific standard for smoking cessation but no equivalent

standard for

dietary improvement.

 

The estimates could be improved by more sophisticated and systematic

methodsfor example by calculating appropriate PAFs (population

attributable

fractions) and applying them to the burden of specific diseases rather

than

ICD (International Classification of Disease) chapters. The estimates

should

be refined, as without quantifying the burden of food related ill

health we

cannot say whether it is a problem worth worrying about or not.

___________

Source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

http://jech.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/59/12/1054

 

15-Nov-05