A "tipping point" has been reached beyond which technological advances may no longer compensate for the negative effect on lifespan of a poor diet, an expert has warned.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Monday (4 April), Dr David Ludwig, of the Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts, USA, believes that life expectancy is beginning to decline.
Lifespan has increased rapidly due to a dependable food supply, improved sanitation, and advances in medical care, he explains.
"With the start of the obesity epidemic in the late 1970s, this trend began to slow, leading some to predict that life expectancy would decline."
Early figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "provide new evidence in support of this prediction", Dr Ludwig warns, "potentially signal a looming social and economic catastrophe".
To delay the disease brought on by obesity and poor-quality diet, millions of individuals in developed countries depend on medications to lower levels of cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose; surgical procedures to open or bypass blocked arteries; and dialysis.
Dr Ludwig believes that the received wisdom that "all calories are alike" is hampering individual weight loss efforts.
"Contrary to the conventional perspective, recent research has shown that food affects hunger, hormones, and even genetic expression in ways that cannot be explained by consideration of caloric balance alone," he writes. "The type of calories consumed may affect the number of calories burned."
Currently, "added sugars and other highly processed carbohydrates comprise the most harmful components of the food supply", he believes. Action must be taken, or "children today will lead shorter, less healthful lives than their parents as a result of the obesity epidemic", he concludes.
Ludwig, D. S. Lifespan Weighed Down by Diet. JAMA 4 April 2016; doi:10.1001/jama.2016.3829
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