How could people in far poorer nations live longer than Americans –the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind?
I suspect one of the reasons is the processed and restaurant food we eat that’s stripped of nutrition, full of sugar/trans-fat/salt, and lacking in fiber.
Combine that with the most expensive, least effective health care system, and you have a recipe for shorter lives (we’re shrinking too, another sign of bad nutrition & health).
Rank Life Span in the USA among the countries, states, or territories of the world
50 2009 CIA Factbook (of 223 nations)
38 2005-2010 United Nations Life expectancy at birth places (of 195 nations)
28 2007 World Health Organization (the USA tied with 5 other nations)
Life Span Nation
83 Japan
82 Australia, Iceland, Italy
81 Andorra, Canada, France, Israel, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, Spain, New Zealand,
80 Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, United Kingdom,
79 Costa Rica, Finland, Portugal
78 Cuba, Chile, Denmark, Kuwait, Slovenia, United States
The high fat, salt, sugar diet of Americans is partly to blame (plus lack of exercise, obesity, smoking, etc.,)
Whole grains (and fruit, vegetables, beans, etc) help protect us from many diseases and a shot at a longer life span. White flour is a fattening starch that has none of the benefits of whole grain flour, yet it’s a good chunk of our daily diet (i.e. bread, cereal, pizza, snack food, etc).
CIA
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
United Nations
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/socind/health.htm
