A research by the University of Adelaide shows that eating unhealthy food results into chronic diseases.
Researchers conducted the study on 1,000 people in China who were followed for around five years. The analysis showed that proportion of people with at least one long-term health problem increased from 14 to 34 percent.
"Risk factors such as smoking, lack of physical activity and nutrition are already known to be linked to the development of chronic disease. But this is the first time research has shown that nutrition itself is directly associated with the development of multiple chronic diseases over time," study co-author Dr Zumin Shi, from the University of Adelaide's School of Medicine, said in a press release.
Researchers said that subjects who consumed fruits, vegetables and grains - apart from rice and wheat - were healthier than others in the study.
"Grains other than rice and wheat - such as oats, corn, sorghum, rye, barley, millet and quinoa - are less likely to be refined and are therefore likely to contain more dietary fibre. The benefits of whole grains are well known and include a reduction in cardiovascular disease, diabetes and colorectal cancer," Shi said.
The team also found that healthy people avoided eating rice. "This could be because rice is mainly refined and deprived of the benefits associated with fibres, and the kinds of phytochemicals that you find in whole grains," Dr Shi said.
The study was conducted by colleagues at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Nanjing, China, Laval University, Université du Québec and Université de Montréal.
