Poor diet as bad as smoking for health, Dutch report

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Insufficient consumption of fish, fruit and

vegetables is as bad for human health as smoking, a Dutch report said

on Monday.

The study, which the European Food Safety Authority says it will use

when analyzing food and diet risks, concludes that most cases of

serious illness and death in the Netherlands is caused by poor diet.

" Taking into account not just deaths but also years spent living with

serious disability, unhealthy dietary habits cause as much health loss

as does smoking, " said the Dutch National Institute for Public Health

and the Environment (RIVM).

" Unhealthy diet composition currently reduces the average life

expectancy of 40-year-old Dutch by 1.2 years, while obesity claims 0.8

years. "

Some 75 percent of the Netherlands' 16 million people eat fruit and

vegetables below the recommended level, said the report, which is a

result of an extensive research into the effects of current food

trends in the country.

Each year in the Netherlands, poor diet causes about 13,000 deaths due

to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, while obesity claims

7,000 lives by causing heart disease and cancer, it said.

By comparison, foodborne infections cause between 20 and 200 deaths

each year.

RIVM researchers recommended that governments around the world should

start encouraging a healthy diet to improve public health, rather than

trying to improve food safety.

The Dutch researchers also say that about 25 percent of deaths and

serious illness caused by overweight and obesity would be avoided if

all adults would shed 3 kgs.

" In particular, attempts at reducing saturated and trans fatty acid

uptake and increasing fish, fruit and vegetables consumption could

save many lives, " the report said.

Saturated and trans fatty acids -- which come from animal fats,

tropical oils such as coconut and palm oils as wells as processed

vegetable oils -- raise the levels of cholesterol and the risk of

heart disease.

The head of the European Food Safety Authority, Herman Koeter, who

received a copy of the report, said in the RIVM statement that it

would be a leading document in Europe when making risk analysis of

food and diets.

Meat consumption in the Netherlands, one of the world's biggest meat

producers and exporters, is about 50 percent higher than the

recommended levels and stands at about 83-85 kg per capita a year,

researchers say.

-Diane