Jump to full article: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2002-09-03
Author: Celia Hall, Medical Editor, in Berlin
Intro: Poor diet and lack of exercise cause more illness than smoking, new figures show. The lifestyle of couch potatoes has overtaken smoking as the major cause of ill-health in EU countries for the first time, the World Health Organisation says. Dr Aileen Robertson told the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Berlin yesterday that doctors and governments must take the issue of diet and exercise more seriously. . .
Poor diet and lack of exercise cause more illness than smoking, new figures show.
The lifestyle of couch potatoes has overtaken smoking as the major cause of ill-health in EU countries for the first time, the World Health Organisation says.
Dr Aileen Robertson told the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Berlin yesterday that doctors and governments must take the issue of diet and exercise more seriously.
Telling people to eat more fruit and vegetables and to take exercise did not work if there were no policies to help people change, she said.
"I am not saying that smoking plays no part in ill-health. I am saying that diet is as important and we have to get that through because it is not understood at the moment."
Dr Robertson, a regional adviser for nutrition at the WHO in Copenhagen, said that Japan had the highest rates of smoking in the world but also the lowest rates of heart disease. . .
The WHO study shows that smoking causes nine per cent of all chronic diseases in the EU, while physical inactivity and diet are responsible for 9.7 per cent.
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