Which country has the healthiest diets in the world?
A global study that assessed the diets of countries worldwide has found that Belgium, Hungary and Armenia are the least healthy countries, whereas Chad, Sierra Leone and Mali are the healthiest, with diets that consume the highest amount of fruit, vegetables, nuts and whole grains.
The study assessed 197 countries, covered almost 4.5 billion adults, which is around 90 per cent of the world’s population.
The data revealed that people living in developed and wealthy regions such as the US, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand had some of the worst diets in the world, including the highest consumption of junk food.
Looking at changes in diets between 1990 and 2010, researchers tracked three different diet patterns. The first was based on ten healthy food items including fruit, vegetables and whole grains; the second was based on seven unhealthy foods such as processed meats, saturated fats, and salts; and the third was based on overall diet pattern.
They found high-income countries ate more healthy foods than low-income countries but overall, developed countries had substantially worse diets due to the high consumption of healthy foods.
The authors say the study is a worrying pictures, where globally the consumption of unhealthy food is far outpacing increases of eating healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables.
The countries with the best diet
1. Chad
2. Sierra Leone
3. Mali
4. Gambia
5.Uganda
6. Ghana
7. Ivory Coast
8. Senegal
9. Israel
10. Somalia
The countries with the worst diet
1. Armenia
2. Hungary
3. Belgium
4. Czech Rebublic
5. Kazakhstan
6. Belarus
7. Argentina
8. Turkmenistan
9. Mongolia
10. Slovakia
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