According to the Lancet-a health journal, our daily diet a bigger murderer than smoking, and its impact brings about one in five deaths across the globe. In particular, salt, which is daily consumed everywhere and is contained in all kinds of meals, has been killing the highest number of lives.
When it comes to death from high salt diet, Mediterranean countries, particularly France, Spain and Israel, have some of the lowest numbers of diet-related deaths in the world while countries in South East, Southern and Central Asia are at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Ironically, Japan, whose people used to take much salt four decades ago, has tremendously cut down salt consumption whereas its giant neighbour China consumes enormous amounts of salts with soy and other salty sauces being a key part of the country's cuisine.
Living in China for a few years, everyone can easily find out what are culprits of salt intake: the number one presumably is takeaway many ordinaries count on which is infamous for the savoury taste, and the matter is nobody supervises how much salt they are allowed to add. Another prime source of salt is highly likely to be soy sauce that has been gaining popularity no matter what social status people are involved in.
Have you ever wondered what is the healthiest diet recommended in the world? The chart above referred to The Lancet shows the difference of daily intake between recommended consumption and the actual one. Whether to satisfy the demand is not as serious as how frequently we dine out in China. The healthy foods missing from the most diets around the world are nuts and seeds. Eager readers will have noticed they featured heavily in the planetary health diet to save lives, save the planet and feed untold people (according to BBC).