It may surprise you, but eating like the English is recommended to people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as a new study shows it could benefit the UK’s wellbeing to the point of preventing nearly 4000 deaths each year.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, death rates from cardiovascular diseases are much higher than in their near neighbours and so the people are being urged to abandon saturated fat and salt and adopt the healthier diet of their English cousins. This could reduce the risks to their wellness from coronary heart disease, stroke and 10 cancers, including those of the gullet, bowel and stomach. However, the British Heart Foundation funded the study, and warned that the findings should not be seen as ‘bragging rights’ for English people.
For the study, researchers from Oxford University gleaned date from the Family Food Survey to compare the death rates from the above mentioned diseases in all four countries in the UK between 2007 and 2009 with estimates of what went into people’s diets during the same period. The results were that almost 22,000 more people died in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland from the diseases and cancers than would be expected if mortality rates were as low as in England.
The researchers believed this was because people in Scotland and Northern Ireland consistently ate more saturated fat and salt and fewer fruits and vegetables every day than their English cousins, though the differences between Wales and England were less consistent. They calculated that 40% of the mortality gap between Scotland and England could have been prevented or delayed if the Scottish population had eaten the average diet served up in England, and the benefits were even greater for Wales and Northern Ireland, at 81%, and thus the study’s authors say this suggests that other non-dietary risk factors contribute to the mortality gap in Scotland.
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