Countries With The Healthiest Diet Revealed; African Nations Leading The Pack

A newly-published research found in The Lancet Global Health journal on February 18 investigated the diets of people from different parts of the globe and revealed which country is eating healthily and the ones that are not doing well with their diets.

Led by Fumiaki Imamura from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine proclaimed that African countries led by Chad in Central Africa are considered having the healthiest diets all over the world. Chad is followed by Sierra Leone, Mali, Gambia, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Israel and Somalia, Tech Times said.

On the other hand, Armenia ranks lowest and is said to have the poorest and unhealthiest diet. It is followed by Hungary, Belgium, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Argentina, Turkmenistan, Mongolia and Slovakia according to the survey.

"Compared with low-income nations, high-income nations had better diets based on healthy items but substantially poorer diets based on unhealthy items. Middle-income countries showed the largest improvement in dietary patterns based on healthy items, but the largest deterioration in dietary patterns based on unhealthy items," the study said.

The study is said to have included 197 countries with almost 4.5 billion adults that comprises 90 per cent of the global population.

According to Daily Mail, countries that topped the survey are said to have a lot of fruit, vegetables, nuts and wholegrains in their diet.

Meanwhile, the survey pointed out that developed and wealthy nations such as U.S. and Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand were put in the lower ranks as they are reported to have the highest consumption of unhealthy foods in a worldwide scale.

Other diet trends have also been announced. One of these said that more and more people around the globe are eating fruits and vegetables. However, the percentage of group with a healthy diet was outweighed by those who junk foods.

The peak of the healthy diet trend is found in the years between 1990 to 2010. Also, women and older people tend to eat healthier foods and are more health-conscious.

The researchers pointed out that the importance of keeping a healthy diet in boosting the country's economy.

"By 2020, projections indicate that non-communicable diseases will account for 75 per cent of all deaths. Improving diet has a crucial role to play in reducing this burden. Our findings have implications for governments and international bodies worldwide," Dr. Imamura said.

The Independent reported that the research used three diet patterns in the survey. The first is composed of healthy foods, the second with unhealthy foods and the third which comprised the overall assessment based on all 17 food groups.