How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick

Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by shasta on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @04:37PM (#2384326)

It would be more interesting to limit the comparison to those who die of causes other than, say, gunshot wounds. It would also be interesting to see a comparison of health, rather than just length of life.

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by Retric on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @05:29PM (#2384585)

The real issue is child morbidity. There are plenty of old people in most poor countries but if 10+% of the population dies before age 5 the average life expectancy get's far shorter.

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by param on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @07:14PM (#2384955)

I think you mean mortality, not morbidity.

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by Retric on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @07:27PM (#2384996)

Sorry, I meant morbidity, but I should have been more clear. Childhood disease(morbidity) leads to a high infant/child mortality rate in poor countries due to poor nutrition, sanitation, and heath care. IMO, it's better to think of these deaths as a symptom than a cause.

For comparison US death rate in the 0 - 5 range is really low. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Causes_of_death_by_age_gro...

PS: Nutrition is huge: According to Jean Ziegler (the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2000 to March 2008), mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58% of the total mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 millions people, all causes of death combined, die each year. In 2006, more than 36 millions died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients"[4].

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by jmatt on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @05:24PM (#2384560)

According to the WHO information it appears that deaths due to intentional injuries are relatively low in comparison to most other forms of disease and illness in Afghanistan:

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimate...

Even when looking at Males 15-59. Though it should be noted these numbers are from 2004. Additionally, I really have no sense of how accurate these numbers are.

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by run4yourlives on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @05:28PM (#2384582)

War, especially when it lasts for a generation, causes a lot more than gun shot wounds.

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by jmatt on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:06PM (#2384712)

I agree. It's horrible and it directly affects health and disease. I don't know how to quantify that, at least with respect to this discussion. I was replying specifically to the parent comment and whether intentional injuries were skewing the mortality numbers.

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Re:How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick by radu_floricica on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @05:51PM (#2384663)

I'd have guessed that people from US and Canada are mainly of North European descent, and so much more likely to have adapted to a colder climate. To be honest you'd probably have to compare Afghan people to Southern Italians, and unsurprising enough, the difference would be much smaller.

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