Kelj
Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2019
- Messages
- 299
The world's healthiest country in 2019, according to this annual report:
https://www-bloomberg-com.cdn.amppr...-as-world-s-healthiest-nation-while-u-s-slips
is Spain, followed by Italy in second place. The much vaunted Mediterranean diet clasping its hands over its head in victory once again, right? If so, it is hard to explain why Iceland comes in at number three of the world's healthiest countries. Perhaps, we are not surprised to find Japan in fourth place, but Switzerland is number five.
According to the article,
"Spain by 2040 is forecast to have the highest lifespan, at almost 86 years, followed by Japan, Singapore and Switzerland, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation."
The article certainly tries to explain the health of Spain and Italy (Italy was previously in the #1 spot) in this way:
"a “Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts, had a lower rate of major cardiovascular events than those assigned to a reduced-fat diet,” according to a study led by the University of Navarra Medical School."
For an idea of the diet of number three, Iceland, check out this article:
Food in Iceland | An Introduction to Icelandic Cuisine
This is not a Mediterranean diet. It is a diet of fish, bread, cultured milk, lamb, and...my favorite point to turn all the reasoning on its head:
"From 1880, shortly after sugar-importation began, and up until 1950 sugar consumption in Iceland increased by over 710%!"
Not a surprise to find a sugar-loving country high on the list of healthiest countries, only for those on Ray Peat forum.
It seems clear from reading years of the healthiest countries report, the researchers have a hard time explaining why these countries are healthiest. These reports often speak of per capita healthcare expenditure as a reason. The higher the expenditure, supposedly, the higher the ranking. If this is so, how do you explain the United States? This article:
U.S. leads among countries that spend the most on public health care
Shows the U.S. far above the #2 spot, held by Luxembourg, in annual per capita healthcare expenditure. The U.S., #1 in spending, spends over 8 thousand dollars per person per year on healthcare, while Luxembourg spends five and a half thousand. What is the U.S. healthiest countries ranking?
It fell from #34 to #35.
I'm going to try to explain what is going on.
It is pretty clear that with such widely varying diets as are represented in the top five of the healthiest countries list, the particular foods in the diet are not the reason. We can go on and on about red wine, omega- 3's,
olive oil, meat vs vegetables, starches vs sugars all day long, but the top 3 being Spain, Italy, and Iceland make this ridiculous. Even just looking at the omega-3 question, which I know doesn't hold much weight, anyway, on the Ray Peat forum, you find this data:
How much fish do we consume? First global seafood consumption footprint published
"In terms of consumption footprint per capita, the Republic of Korea scored highest (78.5 kg per capita), followed by Norway (66.6 kg), Portugal (61.5 kg), Myanmar (59.9 kg), Malaysia (58.6 kg) and Japan (58 kg) – China comes in seventh at 48.3 kg per capita."
And, Fish Consumption Per Capita in Switzerland
"Fish consumption per capita reached 17.5 kg in 2013 in Switzerland, according to Faostat. This is 0.575 % more than in the previous year."
That is a widely varying consumption of fish in the countries which occupy #4 and #5 places in the healthiest countries.
Let's look at the interesting question of calorie consumption. It is considered by many to be a fact that the more you eat of calories the fatter you will be, and the fatter you are the less likely you are to be healthy. That would be the number one reason almost anyone would say that the U.S. is number 35 on the healthiest countries list. The U.S. does top the list on this site addressing calories:
List of countries by food energy intake - Wikipedia
USDA | OCE | U.S. Food Waste Challenge | FAQ's
But, what are we looking at?
According to the site:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake
"Food consumption refers to the amount of food available for human consumption as estimated by the FAO Food Balance Sheets. However the actual food consumption may be lower than the quantity shown as food availability depending on the magnitude of wastage and losses of food in the household, e.g. during storage, in preparation and cooking, as plate-waste or quantities fed to domestic animals and pets, thrown or given away.[2]"
So, this is a list of calories available to the consumer, not the actual calories consumed. Waste of food must be factored in. This article:
https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm
says,
"In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. This estimate, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Serviceof 31 percent food loss at the retail and consumer levels"
So, when we factor in how many calories Americans are wasting, we get this:
"The U.S. Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service estimates that more than 30 percent of the U.S. food supply goes to waste — 133 billion pounds of it every year, equivalent to $161 billion.
The research service worked out that the discarded food is equal to 1,249 calories per day for each and every American" from this site:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/italy-sets-example-reducing-food-waste-u-s-tosses-161-n622561
which also says about #2, Italy:
"discards more than 17 percent of its food " and this site says regarding #1 Spain:
https://www.eu-fusions.org/index.php/country-reports/reports/300-spain
"In Spain, households waste 18% of their food".
So, 3,800 calories available to Americans is reduced to actual consumption of 2,551 calories on average.
Italy's 3,650 calories, reduced by 17% is 3,029.5 calories and Spain's 3,260 calories reduced by 18% is 2,673.2 calories on average. So, both Spain and Italy have an average calorie consumption above the calorie consumption of the U.S. As a recovered orthorexic, I know how important it has been to increase my own calorie consumption to improve my health and reduce my fat stores. I am absolutely convinced that biology dictates fat storage when calorie consumption is erratic. And that is how Americans consume calories...erratically. They do this because they have been convinced that fat stores are a result of too many calories and/or too much fat or sugar consumed. So, they are forever trying to reduce these. This is not how the body works. Let's look at this list of calorie availability, realizing that most countries do not have a 31% food waste habit like the U.S. and see how many likely average above the 3,000 calorie mark and are on the top 25 healthiest countries list:
Austria #7: 3,750 calories
Luxembourg #11: 3,680 calories
Italy #2: 3,650
Ireland #20: 3,590 calories
Portugal #22: 3,580 calories
Germany #23: 3,540 calories
Canada #16: 3,530 calories
France #12: 3,530 calories
Israel #10: 3,530 calories
Norway #9: 3,450 calories
Switzerland #5: 3,450 calories
United Kingdom #19: 3,450 calories
Denmark #25: 3,410 calories
Iceland #3: 3,260 calories
Netherlands #15: 3,000 calories
Spain #1: 3,260 calories
Australia #7: 3,220 calories
Finland #14: 3,220 calories
Cyprus #21: 3,190 calories
Sweden #6: 3,110 calories
S. Korea 17: 3,040 calories
That is a lot, for the top 25 countries. But, it doesn't entirely account for the health of a country. It may be a large factor, but take Japan, #4 of the world's healthiest countries. Average calorie availability is 2,800. Still higher than the ridiculous suggestion of 2,000 calories, which is so common, but way too low. What is going on here? Perhaps, a couple of points in this article are factors: https://www.livestrong.com/article/264082-a-typical-japanese-diet/
"The Japanese take pride in eating a diverse and nourishing diet"
"a meal without rice is not a meal at all."
A high calorie diet, following the body's desire for food is a way to ensure nutrients, but if the environment and culture allow for high nutrition in a varied diet, as in Japan, it can make up for a relative lower calorie intake. Both calories and nutrients are vital to good health. The Minnesota Starvation experiment gives us the lesson that if a person needs to recover from former starvation, taking vitamins and minerals as supplements without an abundance of calories will not bring about recovery. But, what if the damaging effects of starvation have not occurred because the person has consistently eaten a highly nutritious diet, though somewhat low in calories? The consistency could make up for the lower calorie content of the diet. Inconsistent food intake is what causes fat storage, and we know Japanese citizens are slim. This could also account for Spain's good health on an actual calorie intake of under 3,000 calories. A culture of consistent mealtimes of nutritious and varied foods could do it.
Higher calorie consumptions, however, can ensure good nutrition, and as long as eating is consistently everything one wants every day, no fat storage will occur.
These quotes from this article:
https://www.livestrong.com/article/404077-the-typical-diet-in-spain/
may be relevant to Spain's success.
"The Spanish diet consists of a lot of foods high in carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, fried potatoes, rice dishes, sweet rolls and hot sweet chocolate. Fish, eggs, pork sausage, cheese, herbs and spices are also common ingredients of the Spanish diet.".....high carb and varied.
"Most Spanish people who follow a traditional diet eat two additional meals a day, one around noon and another around 6 p.m. "...that's five meals.
And let's be real about olive oil. This:
https://www-oliveoiltimes-com.cdn.a...anish-eating-more-butter-less-olive-oil/23131
from 2011
"spanish-eating-more-butter-less-olive-oil"
did not hurt their 2019 ranking as the #1 healthiest country.
https://www-bloomberg-com.cdn.amppr...-as-world-s-healthiest-nation-while-u-s-slips
is Spain, followed by Italy in second place. The much vaunted Mediterranean diet clasping its hands over its head in victory once again, right? If so, it is hard to explain why Iceland comes in at number three of the world's healthiest countries. Perhaps, we are not surprised to find Japan in fourth place, but Switzerland is number five.
According to the article,
"Spain by 2040 is forecast to have the highest lifespan, at almost 86 years, followed by Japan, Singapore and Switzerland, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation."
The article certainly tries to explain the health of Spain and Italy (Italy was previously in the #1 spot) in this way:
"a “Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts, had a lower rate of major cardiovascular events than those assigned to a reduced-fat diet,” according to a study led by the University of Navarra Medical School."
For an idea of the diet of number three, Iceland, check out this article:
Food in Iceland | An Introduction to Icelandic Cuisine
This is not a Mediterranean diet. It is a diet of fish, bread, cultured milk, lamb, and...my favorite point to turn all the reasoning on its head:
"From 1880, shortly after sugar-importation began, and up until 1950 sugar consumption in Iceland increased by over 710%!"
Not a surprise to find a sugar-loving country high on the list of healthiest countries, only for those on Ray Peat forum.
It seems clear from reading years of the healthiest countries report, the researchers have a hard time explaining why these countries are healthiest. These reports often speak of per capita healthcare expenditure as a reason. The higher the expenditure, supposedly, the higher the ranking. If this is so, how do you explain the United States? This article:
U.S. leads among countries that spend the most on public health care
Shows the U.S. far above the #2 spot, held by Luxembourg, in annual per capita healthcare expenditure. The U.S., #1 in spending, spends over 8 thousand dollars per person per year on healthcare, while Luxembourg spends five and a half thousand. What is the U.S. healthiest countries ranking?
It fell from #34 to #35.
I'm going to try to explain what is going on.
It is pretty clear that with such widely varying diets as are represented in the top five of the healthiest countries list, the particular foods in the diet are not the reason. We can go on and on about red wine, omega- 3's,
olive oil, meat vs vegetables, starches vs sugars all day long, but the top 3 being Spain, Italy, and Iceland make this ridiculous. Even just looking at the omega-3 question, which I know doesn't hold much weight, anyway, on the Ray Peat forum, you find this data:
How much fish do we consume? First global seafood consumption footprint published
"In terms of consumption footprint per capita, the Republic of Korea scored highest (78.5 kg per capita), followed by Norway (66.6 kg), Portugal (61.5 kg), Myanmar (59.9 kg), Malaysia (58.6 kg) and Japan (58 kg) – China comes in seventh at 48.3 kg per capita."
And, Fish Consumption Per Capita in Switzerland
"Fish consumption per capita reached 17.5 kg in 2013 in Switzerland, according to Faostat. This is 0.575 % more than in the previous year."
That is a widely varying consumption of fish in the countries which occupy #4 and #5 places in the healthiest countries.
Let's look at the interesting question of calorie consumption. It is considered by many to be a fact that the more you eat of calories the fatter you will be, and the fatter you are the less likely you are to be healthy. That would be the number one reason almost anyone would say that the U.S. is number 35 on the healthiest countries list. The U.S. does top the list on this site addressing calories:
List of countries by food energy intake - Wikipedia
USDA | OCE | U.S. Food Waste Challenge | FAQ's
But, what are we looking at?
According to the site:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake
"Food consumption refers to the amount of food available for human consumption as estimated by the FAO Food Balance Sheets. However the actual food consumption may be lower than the quantity shown as food availability depending on the magnitude of wastage and losses of food in the household, e.g. during storage, in preparation and cooking, as plate-waste or quantities fed to domestic animals and pets, thrown or given away.[2]"
So, this is a list of calories available to the consumer, not the actual calories consumed. Waste of food must be factored in. This article:
https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm
says,
"In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. This estimate, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Serviceof 31 percent food loss at the retail and consumer levels"
So, when we factor in how many calories Americans are wasting, we get this:
"The U.S. Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service estimates that more than 30 percent of the U.S. food supply goes to waste — 133 billion pounds of it every year, equivalent to $161 billion.
The research service worked out that the discarded food is equal to 1,249 calories per day for each and every American" from this site:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/italy-sets-example-reducing-food-waste-u-s-tosses-161-n622561
which also says about #2, Italy:
"discards more than 17 percent of its food " and this site says regarding #1 Spain:
https://www.eu-fusions.org/index.php/country-reports/reports/300-spain
"In Spain, households waste 18% of their food".
So, 3,800 calories available to Americans is reduced to actual consumption of 2,551 calories on average.
Italy's 3,650 calories, reduced by 17% is 3,029.5 calories and Spain's 3,260 calories reduced by 18% is 2,673.2 calories on average. So, both Spain and Italy have an average calorie consumption above the calorie consumption of the U.S. As a recovered orthorexic, I know how important it has been to increase my own calorie consumption to improve my health and reduce my fat stores. I am absolutely convinced that biology dictates fat storage when calorie consumption is erratic. And that is how Americans consume calories...erratically. They do this because they have been convinced that fat stores are a result of too many calories and/or too much fat or sugar consumed. So, they are forever trying to reduce these. This is not how the body works. Let's look at this list of calorie availability, realizing that most countries do not have a 31% food waste habit like the U.S. and see how many likely average above the 3,000 calorie mark and are on the top 25 healthiest countries list:
Austria #7: 3,750 calories
Luxembourg #11: 3,680 calories
Italy #2: 3,650
Ireland #20: 3,590 calories
Portugal #22: 3,580 calories
Germany #23: 3,540 calories
Canada #16: 3,530 calories
France #12: 3,530 calories
Israel #10: 3,530 calories
Norway #9: 3,450 calories
Switzerland #5: 3,450 calories
United Kingdom #19: 3,450 calories
Denmark #25: 3,410 calories
Iceland #3: 3,260 calories
Netherlands #15: 3,000 calories
Spain #1: 3,260 calories
Australia #7: 3,220 calories
Finland #14: 3,220 calories
Cyprus #21: 3,190 calories
Sweden #6: 3,110 calories
S. Korea 17: 3,040 calories
That is a lot, for the top 25 countries. But, it doesn't entirely account for the health of a country. It may be a large factor, but take Japan, #4 of the world's healthiest countries. Average calorie availability is 2,800. Still higher than the ridiculous suggestion of 2,000 calories, which is so common, but way too low. What is going on here? Perhaps, a couple of points in this article are factors: https://www.livestrong.com/article/264082-a-typical-japanese-diet/
"The Japanese take pride in eating a diverse and nourishing diet"
"a meal without rice is not a meal at all."
A high calorie diet, following the body's desire for food is a way to ensure nutrients, but if the environment and culture allow for high nutrition in a varied diet, as in Japan, it can make up for a relative lower calorie intake. Both calories and nutrients are vital to good health. The Minnesota Starvation experiment gives us the lesson that if a person needs to recover from former starvation, taking vitamins and minerals as supplements without an abundance of calories will not bring about recovery. But, what if the damaging effects of starvation have not occurred because the person has consistently eaten a highly nutritious diet, though somewhat low in calories? The consistency could make up for the lower calorie content of the diet. Inconsistent food intake is what causes fat storage, and we know Japanese citizens are slim. This could also account for Spain's good health on an actual calorie intake of under 3,000 calories. A culture of consistent mealtimes of nutritious and varied foods could do it.
Higher calorie consumptions, however, can ensure good nutrition, and as long as eating is consistently everything one wants every day, no fat storage will occur.
These quotes from this article:
https://www.livestrong.com/article/404077-the-typical-diet-in-spain/
may be relevant to Spain's success.
"The Spanish diet consists of a lot of foods high in carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, fried potatoes, rice dishes, sweet rolls and hot sweet chocolate. Fish, eggs, pork sausage, cheese, herbs and spices are also common ingredients of the Spanish diet.".....high carb and varied.
"Most Spanish people who follow a traditional diet eat two additional meals a day, one around noon and another around 6 p.m. "...that's five meals.
And let's be real about olive oil. This:
https://www-oliveoiltimes-com.cdn.a...anish-eating-more-butter-less-olive-oil/23131
from 2011
"spanish-eating-more-butter-less-olive-oil"
did not hurt their 2019 ranking as the #1 healthiest country.