Research
Macro partitioning
High dietary salt, low dietary omega-3 fatty acids, and high dietary trans fatty acids are the dietary risks with the largest mortality effects, causing 102,000, 84,000, and 82,000 deaths respectively.
Limit salt, increase omega-3 fatty acids (e.g., from seafood), and avoid trans fats. These three dietary factors are the leading dietary causes of death in the US, responsible for over 260,000 deaths annually.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
High dietary salt (102,000; 97,000–107,000), low dietary omega-3 fatty acids (84,000; 72,000–96,000), and high dietary trans fatty acids (82,000; 63,000–97,000) were the dietary risks with the largest mortality effects.
Why this rating
Based on nationally representative surveys (NHANES), systematic reviews, and NCHS mortality data.
Source
The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors
Goodarz Danaei et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2009
DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000058
Meta-analysisCited 2,880×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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