Reduction of Preventable Deaths

The three leading causes of death that can be associated directly with your diet are caused by heart disease, stroke, and some cancers. These three health conditions have been associated with the high consumption of red meat, and processed foods.

Eating red meat and processed foods has been determined to increase your chances for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, heart disease, strokes, and many forms of cancer. The medical professionals that signed the letter urging the change in dietary recommendations believe that large numbers of lives can be spared if the diets of the average person were to include more plants based foods and less meat products.

<h2>Call to action Letter</h2>

The Department of Nutrition’s chair at Harvard endorsed a call to action letter urging the United States Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services division to get behind the recommendations made by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on heart health. More than seven hundred other health professionals joined Walter Willet of Harvard in urging the USDA and HHS to recommend the higher plant based diets to help prevent heart disease in the United States.

Beans, Legumes, and Whole Grains

People should be instructed to get the majority of their daily food intake from natural plant sources like beans, legumes, and whole grain products. These types of foods have been proven to reduce heart disease risk, lower cholesterol levels, reduce obesity, and in some cases they even help to correct some heart disease risk by clearing plaque build-up out of arteries.

Fresh fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and lean fish should make up the majority of what people eat. People should stay away from processed meats because these meats are high in fat and high in sodium. Both the fat and the sodium lead to obesity and high blood pressure concerns.

What this means for the future

If the government would back a recommendation for a higher plant based diet, then heath care professionals would be able to advise their patients and have more patients listen to them. Many people believe that the recommendations from the USDA and the HHS are what they should follow, and they often think that doctors who recommend other diets are being extreme.

If people were to begin to eat a diet that had the majority of foods come from plants, then the obesity numbers in the United States could be reduced by as much as one half.

The number of people with high cholesterol could be reduced by one half or more.

The number of young adults who suffer cardiovascular events or strokes could be three times lower, especially amongst black women.

The cost of health care that is needed to treat preventable diseases could be reduced from seventy five percent of all health care to less than forty five percent of all health care.

We could become a happier nation that lives longer.