mardi 20 décembre 2016

Is junk food soon to be more harmful than tobacco, unprotected sex and alcohol combined?

In a study British experts projected that by 2050, junk food and obesity will cause more deaths than diseases linked to tobacco, alcohol or unprotected sex...

By 2050, the number of diseases related to a poor diet will be greater than the number of diseases related to tobacco, alcohol and unprotected sex combined.

Hypertension, infant malnutrition, hyperglycemia, cholesterol

This alarming conclusion is drawn from a recent report by the UK experts of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition. If specialists have highlighted recurring problems of lack of food (800 million people around the world would be affected), they also warned against the peril of "junk food".

The latter would thus be responsible for the development of diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, child malnutrition, hyperglycemia, overweight and cholesterol.

Another consequence of poor nutrition is obesity. The figures are particularly worrisome. By 2050, 3 billion people will be overweight or obese, according to a 23 September report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And in 2030, the percentage of overweight and obese people in China will have reached 50%.

According to the Global Panel, all countries are affected, "developed as well as developing countries". In the future, there will even be countries with rampant malnutrition suffering from these issues. In Nigeria and Ethiopia, the number of people with diabetes could double by 2030.

Closer to home, at the same time, it is estimated that half of the population in Iceland will suffer from obesity, compared to a third in the United Kingdom. In France, a quarter of the population could be affected.

A public health problem that has economic consequences. As a reminder, the fight against excessive weight costs 20 billion euros a year to a country like France, according to a recent study by the British experts. An sum that will almost be comparable to that allocated to the fight against alcohol and tobacco.