Question: Do different types of food cause it to have a higher chance of disease?

Simon Langley-Evans answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Yes they do- very much so. It is perhaps best to think about diseases in two groups, one set we called infectious disease because they are caused by bacteria or viruses, and the others which we call non-infectious disease.

Chances of catching an infectious diseases are not usually to do with food, but people who don’t get enough food regularly or who are starving are less able to fight them off. The poor people affected by the typhoon in the Philippines are going to be going hungry for quite a while, and with dirty water and bodies everywhere, the weakest people (babies, children and elderly people) will be more likely to get infections like cholera. We can also catch bugs from food- food poisoning from Salmonella or Listeria is very dangerous.

The non-infectious diseases which cause most poor health and death in our country are cancer, heart disease and diabetes and these are very much linked to what we eat. All of them are most strongly linked to being overweight and eating a diet that consists of foods which contain lots of fat and sugar (sweets, cakes, burgers, pizzas, chips; all the things that we call junk food). To avoid these diseases the key things to remember are:
1. Eat less meat (too much meat is linked to cancer)
2. Keep a healthy weight
3. Eat less fat
4. Avoid sugar, especially fizzy drinks
5. Eat 5 portions of fruit and veg every day (a portion is 80g)
6. Try and vary the fruit and veg you eat too- get a good mix of greens along with bananas, apples, carrots, etc.
7. Try and eat oily fish like salmon or tuna once a week