LONDON: Poor eating habits in Britain are costing the country's health service 6 billion pounds (US$10 billion) a year three times as much as smoking, public health experts said Tuesday.

A preference for processed foods instead of fresh fruit and vegetables is contributing to illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and some food poisoning.

"Food-related ill health is responsible for about 10 per cent of morbidity and mortality in the UK and costs the National Health Service (NHS) about 6 billion pounds annually," said Doctor Mike Rayner, of the Department of Public Health at Oxford University.

"We eat too much fat, particularly saturated fat, too much sodium, too much added sugar and not enough fruit and vegetables," he added in an interview.

Rayner and Peter Scarborough calculated the proportion of ill health and deaths, known as disability adjusted life years or DALYs, due to poor diets.

They said 37 per cent of DALYs were attributable to food-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, which accounted for 28 per cent of health care costs in 2002 or 18 billion pounds.

Diet is not the only cause of those illnesses. But the researchers said it is well established that about a third of the diseases are related to diet.

"The 6 billion pounds is also over three times one commonly quoted estimate (1.5 billion pounds annually) for the cost of smoking to the NHS," the researchers said in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

"We think the government should pay more attention to the costs of food-related ill health," said Rayner.

He suggested that a tax on unhealthy foods, banning the advertizing of junk food to children and better labelling could improve the national diet.

Source: China Daily