What Country has the best diet in the World?
Replies
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Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.0
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If I ever find myself shopping in "Iceland" then I know my diet's screwed...
I didn't realise you beat me to it0 -
Iceland? Really? Chicken Nuggets, Frozen Cheescakes and Sticky Chicken Lasagne?
But don't you know!!!! They're ICELANDIC... therefore, they ONLY eat Iceland food! Don't muddy the water with your LOGIC!
You make a good point.
It's like saying British people only eat Kendal Mint Cake, Bath Buns, Yorkshire Puddings and Dundee Cake.
So, are you trying to tell me that they DON'T??
What will you say next? That all Americans DON'T eat McDonald's food 3 times a day??0 -
The real question is what do Icelandic people eat that gives them the title?
According to: http://www.icelandtoday.is/DiscoverIceland/Facts/Health/More/
Hot house veggies, pasture raised lamb, and a lot of North Atlantic fish. I wonder if their life expectancy will drop as pollution spreads even more through the oceans?
Probably. Life expectancy just keeps plummeting in the US! Someone needs to stop the insanity!!
I sense sarcasm. Life expectancy may very well be less for the next generation than the current one, according to researchers studying the impact of our diet on our children. And we certainly should be rivaling the top countries and not remain content with less.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsr043743
Forecasts of life expectancy are an important component of public policy that influence age-based entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Although the Social Security Administration recently raised its estimates of how long Americans are going to live in the 21st century, current trends in obesity in the United States suggest that these estimates may not be accurate. From our analysis of the effect of obesity on longevity, we conclude that the steady rise in life expectancy during the past two centuries may soon come to an end.
What does any of that have to do with pollution spreading through the ocean? No sarcasm. Not seeing any connection... even remotely.
It's just a comment on your apparent contentment with our life expectancy. Although there are some interesting studies linking pollution with factors that lead to obesity, it's true there is nothing definitive. At least not yet.
Point is, the SAD diet and our healthcare system and our environment and our society are not what they could be. Instead of shrugging and saying it's better than it was before, we should learn from other countries who are doing better than we are.0 -
Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.
He's also hanging around with an underage girl and weird looking puppets so...0 -
Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.
He's also hanging around with an underage girl and weird looking puppets so...
You're just being jealous now.0 -
Iceland? Really? Chicken Nuggets, Frozen Cheescakes and Sticky Chicken Lasagne?
But don't you know!!!! They're ICELANDIC... therefore, they ONLY eat Iceland food! Don't muddy the water with your LOGIC!
You make a good point.
It's like saying British people only eat Kendal Mint Cake, Bath Buns, Yorkshire Puddings and Dundee Cake.
So, are you trying to tell me that they DON'T??
What will you say next? That all Americans DON'T eat McDonald's food 3 times a day??
Well, no...that would be ridiculous..ha ha it's not like any crops are grown in the US, its all turned over to raising gigantic mutated cattle for the corporate obesity empire
Dude0 -
Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.
He's also hanging around with an underage girl and weird looking puppets so...
You're just being jealous now.
Of what?
His pointy, waxed moustache?
Oh, wait...0 -
From the look of that running order, it looks like fish has a big part to play in the making of a good diet.
I don't quite get the Seventh Day Adventists' entry though - surely they come from all over the place?! Do they just have a very prescriptive diet regime no matter where they live?
SDA yep basically, extremely healthy and they believe in fitness... at one point recently they were the longest life span group too...0 -
Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.
He's also hanging around with an underage girl and weird looking puppets so...
You're just being jealous now.
Of what?
His pointy, waxed moustache?
Oh, wait...
I think you protesteth too much
Now - go get some Sports Candy!0 -
I thought Italy would be high up. The food is so amazing in Italy but I think I put weight on when I went there, maybe had too much pizza, pasta, gelato and grilled veggies.
Also France is funny because my ex-boyfriend used to always make me his traditional French home town dish which was a load of potatoes with some salad (which was just fried onions) and with a baked round cheese served in a wood case spread all over the potatoes. It used to make me feel sick, it was so heavy. But then we didn't eat all day after that... So maybe it was good.0 -
North Korea, they're all skinny...
Oh wait, that's starvation...0 -
Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.
He's also hanging around with an underage girl and weird looking puppets so...
You're just being jealous now.
Of what?
His pointy, waxed moustache?
Oh, wait...
I think you protesteth too much
Now - go get some Sports Candy!
I am not protestesthing I have you know. I am commentatering!
Yeah, I could do with an apple actually...
Apparently a diet high in fresh fruit, leafy greens, olive oil and lean meat is beneficial. Who knew?0 -
Neither do I. Can we just go back to Magnus now. Please. He's SO FIT.
He's also hanging around with an underage girl and weird looking puppets so...
You're just being jealous now.
Of what?
His pointy, waxed moustache?
Oh, wait...
I think you protesteth too much
Now - go get some Sports Candy!
I am not protestesthing I have you know. I am commentatering!
Yeah, I could do with an apple actually...
Apparently a diet high in fresh fruit, leafy greens, olive oil and lean meat is beneficial. Who knew?
I dem near spat out me Eccles cake!0 -
On another note, where were African/ South American countries?
Mexico was low wasn't it?0 -
On a more serious note, as another poster pointed out:Given the complexity of the subject matter, The World's Best Diet list is not intended to be definitive. Instead, it is designed to initiate discussion about where and what we can learn from eating habits around the world, asking plenty of fascinating questions along the way. Given their love of cheese and wine, why do the French have lower rates of heart disease than the UK? How do the Inuits get all the nutrients they need when they live on a diet made almost entirely of raw meat and fish? And what's the unhealthy habit that's undermining the benefits of South Korea's vegetable-rich diet?
Success leaves clues. Looking at countries which have low incidences of obesity and disease and seeing if they share common traits when it comes to diet is a useful exercise and yeah, some populations may be shown to have better habits in this regard than others on a general basis.
Shocking, I know.0 -
I know about the healthy eating in the Netherlands.... i moved here from Scotland, There i was eating battered sausage and chips every day, here it's steamed cabbage and mashed potatoes:/ lol0
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I vote for us Canadians. Bacon and poutine errywhere! :drinker:
Oh wait, we're talking healthiest, not tastiest in terms of best? Damn. Rest of the world is missing out. 0 -
On a more serious note, as another poster pointed out:Given the complexity of the subject matter, The World's Best Diet list is not intended to be definitive. Instead, it is designed to initiate discussion about where and what we can learn from eating habits around the world, asking plenty of fascinating questions along the way. Given their love of cheese and wine, why do the French have lower rates of heart disease than the UK? How do the Inuits get all the nutrients they need when they live on a diet made almost entirely of raw meat and fish? And what's the unhealthy habit that's undermining the benefits of South Korea's vegetable-rich diet?
Success leaves clues. Looking at countries which have low incidences of obesity and disease and seeing if they share common traits when it comes to diet is a useful exercise and yeah, some populations may be shown to have better habits in this regard than others on a general basis.
Shocking, I know.
Probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that health is not all about diet. When you look at diet and ignore known contributing factors like exercise, smoking, stress, etc, it makes it difficult if not impossible to empirically decide which diet is better.0 -
The real question is what do Icelandic people eat that gives them the title?
According to: http://www.icelandtoday.is/DiscoverIceland/Facts/Health/More/
Hot house veggies, pasture raised lamb, and a lot of North Atlantic fish. I wonder if their life expectancy will drop as pollution spreads even more through the oceans?
Probably. Life expectancy just keeps plummeting in the US! Someone needs to stop the insanity!!
I sense sarcasm. Life expectancy may very well be less for the next generation than the current one, according to researchers studying the impact of our diet on our children. And we certainly should be rivaling the top countries and not remain content with less.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsr043743
Forecasts of life expectancy are an important component of public policy that influence age-based entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Although the Social Security Administration recently raised its estimates of how long Americans are going to live in the 21st century, current trends in obesity in the United States suggest that these estimates may not be accurate. From our analysis of the effect of obesity on longevity, we conclude that the steady rise in life expectancy during the past two centuries may soon come to an end.
What does any of that have to do with pollution spreading through the ocean? No sarcasm. Not seeing any connection... even remotely.
It's just a comment on your apparent contentment with our life expectancy. Although there are some interesting studies linking pollution with factors that lead to obesity, it's true there is nothing definitive. At least not yet.
Point is, the SAD diet and our healthcare system and our environment and our society are not what they could be. Instead of shrugging and saying it's better than it was before, we should learn from other countries who are doing better than we are.
Yeah. Any other "ills of society" you'd like to air out while you're here?
I hear that Mars needs women. Maybe they need foil hats and soap boxes, too.0 -
In, for America bashing yay!
Just quoting myself earlier in the thread.0 -
I vote for us Canadians. Bacon and poutine errywhere! :drinker:
Oh wait, we're talking healthiest, not tastiest in terms of best? Damn. Rest of the world is missing out.
Mmm, bacon and poutine! And Kraft dinner and ketchup, lol! Not Canadian, but darn close (waves at Canada from across Lake Superior :drinker: ).0 -
I've travelled a lot and I grew up on greek cuisine since I'm half greek. I've noticed that these countries have normal portions of food (my god do we have huge portions here), and when they indulge, they don't do it often. Also, people in Europe are much more active then they are in North America.
I also work in my family's restaurant part time. People in North America tend to have a "go big or go home" attitude. People will eat an appetizer, their dinner, and desert and a few drinks routinely. And many people will eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner at a restaurant with huge portions. I think that's our problem here...frequently huge portions and little exercise.0 -
Iceland. First in diet but seventh in life expectancy.0
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I really wish I could find this documentary online. Channel 4 needs to step up and post it somewhere. For you know, global health and all.0
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Seventh Day Adventists still seems a really weird entry to me - not because they have an unhealthy diet but because it is a list of where healthy diets are and Seventh Day Adventists are not a place.
I doubt all Seventh Day Adventists have unhealthy diet, in fact that is not true.
You have misunderstood my post - perhaps I did not word it well.
I doubt all Seventh Day Adventists have an unhealthy diet too, I agree with you there. In fact they actively promote vegetarian diets here in Australia, the church near me has vegetarian cooking classes for the public and the SDA own Sanitarium, a company that produces soy milk and other vegetarian (vegan?) foods.
What I meant was that a list of healthy places would not include SDA because they are not a place, like the countries are.
However, on closer reading I see the website says " As well as countries, diets specific to tribal peoples and religious groups were also considered."
So in fact their scope of study could include groups like SDA who are not neccesarily specific to one place.
I admit it, I didn't read carefully and my point was non valid.0 -
Iceland. First in diet but seventh in life expectancy.
that could well be so.
This documentary is clearly only studying dietary effects on populations - there is an excerpt form their website upthread defining their definitions of this - cardiovascular disease, diet related cancers, obesity, type 2 diabetes etc.
Of course it is not taking into account other factors in longetivity - genetic diseases, access to health care ( vaccination rates, infant mortality, cultural barriers etc etc) rate of non illness deaths (accidents, murder, suicide, child birth) etc.
Just because we may have something to learn from the diets of a place/group does not mean everything about that place/group is desirable or beneficial or relevant to us.0 -
In, for America bashing yay!
Just quoting myself earlier in the thread.
Agreed.0 -
In, for America bashing yay!
Just quoting myself earlier in the thread.
Agreed.
Take off that red white and blue cap for a minute, stop being insulting, and maybe you'll realize that the world's richest and most powerful nation, one that uses more resources than any other nation on Earth, should be #1 in longevity and health. And since we aren't, we ought to be figuring out why.
Or you can just wave your little flag and cover your ears whenever anyone points out that our country could learn from the successes of others.
It's exceptionalist rubbish, but I guess go ahead if it makes you feel better.0 -
In, for America bashing yay!
Just quoting myself earlier in the thread.
Agreed.
Take off that red white and blue cap for a minute, stop being insulting, and maybe you'll realize that the world's richest and most powerful nation, one that uses more resources than any other nation on Earth, should be #1 in longevity and health. And since we aren't, we ought to be figuring out why.
Or you can just wave your little flag and cover your ears whenever anyone points out that our country could learn from the successes of others.
It's exceptionalist rubbish, but I guess go ahead if it makes you feel better.
You're insulted because I said that your post made no sense to me... I get that. And you're at least as insulted that I said that you are on a soap box for trying to bring in irrelevant "facts" into this discussion. I get that, too.
You're obviously new around here, but with 564 posts, unless they were in all "slap, tickle or kiss" threads, you should probably catch on that these forums aren't for the easily butthurt.
This isn't Facebook. If your post doesn't make sense, if you can't back up your opinions with hard science, or if you're obviously on a soap box, you'll likely get called out for it.0
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