The World's Best Diet

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-best-diet
http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/30/iceland-has-the-worlds-best-diet-but-its-bad-news-for-the-uk-4781913/

Taken from the above site:

Factors and Considerations

A number of factors were taken into account compiling The World's Best Diet list, including:

• Rates of obesity
• Life expectancy
• Healthy diet indicators
• Nutritional composition
• Alcohol intake
• Diabetes prevalence
• Heart disease and other non-communicable diseases
• Diet-related cancer
• Cultural attitudes to food
As well as countries, diets specific to tribal peoples and religious groups were also considered.
Some entries in the list focus on a specific feature of their diet; others look across broader situations, trends and attitudes to food. In addition, the list looks at the contemporary situations of certain countries and communities alongside the traditional diets of others. So, for example, the Mediterranean diet is not intended to be representative of the food eaten across the Mediterranean as a whole but rather the traditional diet within specific parts of the region, while the Icelandic diet focuses on the benefits of the country's traditional foods rather than its contemporary eating habits.

Expert Sources

Health-related statistics from the following organisations were used during the making of the programme:

• World Health Organisation (WHO)
• International Diabetes Federation (IDF)
• The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Food Balance Sheets
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

We have been assisted throughout by a group of dietary and medical experts. Read full profiles of our Lead Consultant, Dr Carrie Ruxton (profile) and Dr Aseem Malhotra (profile).

We also consulted dietitians who act as spokespeople for the British Dietetic Association (BDA). The BDA is the professional association and trade union for UK dietitians, supporting the science and practice of dietetics (More information on the BDA).

Facts and Findings

Our research unearthed – among many others – the following facts and statistics, all of which influenced these countries' positions in the list:

• The UK: It's estimated that just 1% of men and 2% of women were obese in the 1960s,1compared to a quarter of the UK population today.2
• Marshall Islands: Their inhabitants have the highest rates of death by diabetes in the world.3
• Mexico: A third of their population is obese.4
• Ethiopia: Eating a traditional rural African diet is linked to lower risk of colon cancer.5
• France: Our neighbours across the Channel have lower rates of heart disease than us,6despite consuming more saturated fat.7
• South Korea: Residents down more shots of hard liquor than anyone else in the world.8
Given the complexity of the subject matter, The World's Best Diet list is not intended to be definitive. Instead, it is designed to initiate discussion about where and what we can learn from eating habits around the world, asking plenty of fascinating questions along the way. Given their love of cheese and wine, why do the French have lower rates of heart disease than the UK? How do the Inuits get all the nutrients they need when they live on a diet made almost entirely of raw meat and fish? And what's the unhealthy habit that's undermining the benefits of South Korea's vegetable-rich diet?

More Information

Hopefully, The World's Best Diet will inspire us all to think about a number of key health-related topics including those listed below.
• Heart disease: Eating healthily can help reduce your risk of developing coronary heart disease. For more information, visit the British Heart Foundation website.
• Diabetes: While Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, it is possible to reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by making changes to your diet. For more information, visit the Diabetes UK website.
• Cancer: What we eat influences our risk of getting certain cancers, including cancers of the bowel, stomach, mouth, oesophagus and breast. You can reduce your cancer risk by eating a healthy, balanced diet. More information can be found on the Cancer Research website.

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References
1. National Obesity Forum – based on figures from the NHS Information Centre
2. OECD Obesity Update, 2014
3. WHO 2008 Obesity & Non-Communicable Disease Mortality (these are the latest available statistics)
4. OECD Obesity Update, 2014
5. 'Fecal weight, colon cancer risk, and dietary intake of nonstarch polysaccharides (dietary fiber)' – American Gastroenterological Association (1992); ‘Why do African Americans get more colon cancer than Native Africans?’ – The Journal of Nutrition (International Research Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Cancer) (2007) (the most recent studies on this subject)
6. 'The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke' – WHO (2004) (latest available figures)
7. Jean Ferrières, 'The French Paradox: lessons for other countries' – Heart (2004)
8. Euromonitor survey, 2014