But the biggest problem is not the junk we eat but the nutritious food we don’t eat, said the researchers.
While sugar and trans-fats are harmful, more deaths are caused by the absence of healthy foods in our diet, the study found.
Heart attacks and strokes are the main diet-related causes of death, followed by cancers and type 2 diabetes, said researchers.
The study found that eating and drinking better could prevent one in five deaths around the world. Although diets vary from one country to another, eating too few fruits and vegetables and too much salt accounted for half of all deaths and two-thirds of the years of disability attributable to diet.
“Our findings show that suboptimal diet is responsible for more deaths than any other risks globally, including tobacco smoking, highlighting the urgent need for improving human diet across nations,” they wrote.
Rather than trying to persuade people to cut down on sugar, salt and fat, which has been ‘the main focus of of diet policy debate in the past two decades’, it would be better to promote healthy options, the study said.
The study looked at 15 different nutrients – some good for health and some not so good. The main risk factors were eating too much salt and too few whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds, vegetables and omega-3 fatty acids from seafood.
Other risk factors considered were consuming high levels of red and processed meat and sugary drinks, low milk consumption and low fibre.
Poor diets were responsible for 10.9m deaths, or 22% of all deaths among adults in 2017. Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause, followed by cancers and diabetes. Nearly half – 45% – were in people younger than 70.
Tobacco was associated with 8million deaths, and high blood pressure was linked to 10.4m deaths.
Israel had the lowest rate of diet-related deaths, at 89 per 100,000 deaths, followed by France, Spain and Japan. The UK ranked 23rd, with 127 diet-related deaths per 100,000 and the US was 43rd with 171. Uzbekistan was last, with 892.