Staying Healthy in the Fast Lane

staying healthy in the fast lane

at the same time that they are experiencing a rapid upsurge in
chronic diseases related to excess calories from more processed
and animal-based foods. It is now common for under-nutrition
and obesity to exist side by side within the same country.^9
Let’s look a bit more closely at these leading killers and at the
impact they are having around the world in order to gain a better
understanding of the true scope of this problem.

Heart Disease

Heart disease, which is still the number one cause of death
worldwide (cancer may overtake heart disease this year), is be-
coming a terrible problem in countries with rapidly developing
economies such as India and China, and in Japan, where they con-
tinue to develop a more urban lifestyle similar to that of the United
States.
The Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration analyzed data
from six hundred thousand people involved in forty-three studies
in nine places: China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Australia,
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand. Findings from this
exhaustive body of research show conclusively that “Asia is facing a
cardiovascular disease epidemic as a result of increases in obesity,
high blood pressure, and smoking.”^10
India, too, is being overwhelmed by heart disease. In fact, India
now carries 60 percent of the world’s heart disease burden, with
the same risk factors as elsewhere.^11

Cancer

Cancer alone accounted for approximately 13 percent of world-
wide deaths in 2007, or 7.9 million people. Nearly 72 percent of
these cancer deaths occurred in low- and middle-income coun-
tries, where leading risk factors include low fruit and vegetable
intake in addition to tobacco and alcohol use and infections from
hepatitis B and C and the human papilloma virus. In high-income