Americans die younger than citizens of most other rich
countries.
We just got some bad
news. Or maybe it’s some good news.
A study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association found
that Americans don’t live as long as citizens of most other rich countries. How
is that good news? Because many of our top risk factors are things we can
change.
By and large, people
who reside in the world’s wealthy countries live longer than we do. We’re the
anomaly. We’ve got the money. We can make the changes — if we want to.
In 2010, a baby born in Japan was expected to live to 82.6. Babies born in Iceland, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Israel, France, and a number of other countries could expect to see their 80thbirthdays. What about American babies? Those born in 2010 are expected to live only to age 78.2.
It’s just a difference
of a couple years. But still, why do we rank below Chile?
The answer to this
question requires other answers. Why are we dying young? What are the biggest
risk factors? The study ranks the causes of “years of life lost:” At the top
are heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease. Also ranking high are diabetes, cirrhosis, and colorectal cancer.
What puts you at risk
for those things? All the usual suspects: poor diet, smoking, not enough
exercise, and too much booze. The study specifies that, “the most important
dietary risks in the United States are diets low in fruits, low in nuts and
seeds, high in sodium, high in processed meats, low in vegetables, and high in
trans fats.”
Yep, it’s the same
stuff we’ve been hearing forever. Eat your fruits and vegetables — put down the
McNuggets.
What do people in
other countries do differently that makes them live so much longer? For one
thing, they walk more. I lived with a British family in the outskirts of London
for a summer during college, and I could count on one hand the number of times
they used their car. Of course, with the excellent public transportation
available to Londoners — not just the famous subway system, but buses and
trains as well — it’s a lot easier to get around without a car than it is in
most American cities.
Many of these
countries also offer universal health care, which makes it much more likely
that people will see a doctor before their condition becomes life-threatening.
As an exchange
student, I was terrified when I got a painful eye infection during my summer in
England. I didn’t have British insurance. Surely, I couldn’t afford a doctor
visit.
Finally, when the pain
became too intense, I went to the doctor. (I went on foot, of course.) My
doctor’s bill? It came to $0. And the cost of the drugs he prescribed? A grand
total of $18. Thank God, the problem I let malinger was simply an eye infection
and not a strange-looking mole.
You know what else is
more common in places where people live longer? Real food.
The French, Italians,
Spanish, Greeks, and Japanese all have strong food cultures. An Italian would
not even think about swapping out extra virgin olive oil for cheaper,
less-healthy soybean oil. And can you imagine the reaction you’d get if you
tried to serve Cheez Whiz to a French person?
In America, we spend a
smaller percentage of our income on food than the people of any other nation on
earth. Author Michael Moss wrote in his book Salt Sugar Fat how
food companies feel compelled to produce junk because healthier alternatives
cost more than customers would pay. Real food costs money. And getting sick is
the hidden price we pay when we buy cheap food.
Of course, the high
cost of an unhealthy lifestyle isn’t shared equally among Americans. A man in wealthy Marin County, California
can expect to live nearly a decade longer than a man born in Mississippi.
That’s a sad statement in a nation founded on the principle that all men are
created equal.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is the author of Recipe
for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.
OtherWords.org