Why Are Brits Healthier Than Yanks?
 

A much publicized study in the American Medical Association journal released yesterday says that older Brits are dramatically in better health than similar demographic Americans.
The statistics are startling: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, cancer - across the board Americans were statistically much higher. Even when ethnic groups were factored out the same results were reached - only older folks were studied and apparently Anglo-Saxons so genetics were ruled out.
Yanks were much more obese but the study says that doesn't account for the discrepencies - and it was noted that older Brits binged more on booze. Both groups had near universal health care coverage - though surprisingly americans spent twice as much on health care than their British counterparts. The stats held up across soci0-economic groups. Both countries older adults have similar smoking rates (1 out of 5)
So what causes Brits to be apparently much more healthy? The study couldn't say.
As a frequent UK traveler the statistics amaze me as i never considered the Brits to be health conscious - fish and chips are still commonly devoured, etc. and many Brits idea of a veg is chips it seems.
But i guess i'm missing something.
why are Brits healthier?

Having husband and wife friends in England who are both dentists, I can tell you they are amazed at much healthier Yanks' teeth and gums are than their Brit counterparts. As they describe it, rare is the Brit who will actually do two trips to the dentist a year (or any at all) unless they have a problem that needs fixing. They feel "preventitive" dental care is almost non-existent in the UK.

What age were they?

The UK ate its healthiest diet during the second world war and in the shortages of the post-war period. (sounds odd but very little sugar or fat, lots of UK grown veg, restricted portions of meat and diary etc). So a lot of older people grew up eating very healthily during their formative years and young adulthood, which I believe has a life-long effect on health. Whereas America didn't have rationing or dietary restrictions at that time. I'm sure if you compare the average diets of Americans and Brits even in the 50s and 60s you would find a big difference.

Now we are eating a much more similar diet I doubt we'll keep our health advantage in future.

ages were 55-64

Is British food laced with corn syrup and nasty colorings and preservatives like in the US?

Yes, i blame it too on preservatives & all that canned & frozen crap everyone eats here. They don't know the long-term effects of that stuff - plus pesticides (although I'm not sure about pesticide use in Europe??). I think in general Europeans are more "natural" about their food - even if it is fish & chips - yummy!

Maybe British Fog keeps them healthy?

I believe the Brits may be healthier because they walk more. Much more than most Americans. Notice all the walking tours offered by UK travel organizations. Just a guess.

An interesting question!
I am a dentist who had a lot of older Brit patients.
For the most part they had this profile for a 80 year old-
1. Usually scrawny
2. They all gardened
3. They were always busy
4. They all drank
5. They all loved to talk.
6. They didn't have any gum problems because they had a lot of teeth missing.
7. They couldn't have cared less about missing teeth if they felt they were functioning well.
8. They always made my day.


They are a special breed...for sure.

Guaranteed

Nona1---the people in the study were between 55 and 64.

I can understand the difference in heart disease and hypertension, which could be accounted for by the greater rate of obesity in the U.S. But how to account for the difference in cancer rates? I am wondering if that reflects a difference in screening practices for breast, colon, and prostate cancer. Also, presumably that includes skin cancers such as basal cell carcinoma. Many of us who spent our early years at the beach would have to be counted.

One difference I have found is in general fitness and exercise habits. Last year I helped to host a group of Brits who came to the West coast for two weeks of hiking and mountain climbing. All but two of the 15 were in their 60's, and they all seemed to feel that their level of fitness---being able to tackle strenuous hikes day after day---was not at all unusual for their age group peers. I don't think the same could be said of most Americans in their 60's.

The short summary of the article I read suggested the that difference might be explained by the greater level of stress experienced by Americans in all aspects of their lives---work, home, and community.

It must be all that "black pudding" they consume! And, nona1, I fully remember the rationing and dietary restrictions that we lived under in the US during WWII. Not that dissimilar to what they endured, once we were involved in the war effort.

Perhaps it's the walking. Also, I don't think that too many in that age group ate too many products with preservatives etc. when younger - maybe they added that stuff as they grew older and these things became more readily available.
On another note, I do remember from living in England, that the English do seem to let things roll off their backs and lots of them have a wonderful sense of humor - could it be less stress.
I wonder if those studies will change with the younger generations everywhere now adopting unhealth habits as a standard.

It must be the exercise, Americans don't seem to get much of it.
I'm surprised at the lung disease, since Americans, (at least here in California) don't smoke as much.

Why wouldn't obesity account for the discrepencies? That does't make sense.

Eating more fresh food?
Eating less food?
Walking?

Our friends never take their car out until they need to drive into the country or somewhere with a large amount of "stuff"..otherwise they walk and take trains.

Coming from a year in Florida, I can say that most of the obese and unhealthy people around us were always driving up to the store to buy the Jumbo bags of Fritos and driving home , even if it was a block to the store.
Fried food and sweets to top it off make a sick large person.

We should all try to eat less and walk more, there is no good reason why Americans with our Health Care and the quality of our stores, foods etc should not be among the healthiest in the world.

As to Health Care, our friends in London use a private doctor because they find the wait for 6 months to have elective surgery to be too difficult to live with.

I bet a lot of the eating health is not from the type of food , so much as the amount of food.
Portions are nowhere as large as they are all over the US..(which is so not a good thing in my mind)

I agree with the less stress theory.

I don't agree that the diet in Britain during WWII was healthy. It was seriously deficient in many essentials and while it's good to eat less food (something else that is common in Britain), not enough is bad for you. However, they certainly weren't getting fat on it.

I'd be amazed if the rationing in the US was even close to what it was in Britain.

"Why wouldn't obesity account for the discrepencies?"

Why would it? Have you been to the UK? I find that I see as many obese people there as I do in the US. Meanwhile, I recently saw statistics and I'm not sure that it didn't indicate there was actually a higher percentage of overweight people in the UK than in the US.

It is a major myth that everyone in the US is obese or that the US has the market on obesity.

Yes i thought why did they dismiss the obeseity angle but i think they also compared older obese Brits to older obese Yanks and found the fat Brits healthier.
Like a post above said one possible explanation was the sense of community and stress. Maybe if older Yanks have friendly neighborhood pubs like the Rovers on Corrie Street to go to they'd live longer!

Why are we healthier than you - especially if we're from the Golden Cohort? (born 1947-56)?

We worry less. We drink. We don't waste money or mental energy on useless fads like dentistry. We walk. We're the generation that had free, universal health care from the moment of our conception, and free access, if we were bright enough, to the world's best education. We grew up before junk food: even if we've lately succumbed, we've had decades of cod liver oil and baked beans (possibly the world's healthiest food) to ward off the worst McD can do. But we prefer M+S and Tesco anyway.

A huge proportion of us are sitting on utterly unexpected wealth - the product of house price inflation, rather than our own skills, but it's still affluence.

And the price of booze has collapsed during our lifetimes.

True of all Britons? No. Later cohorts didn't have it so good, and I suspect the balance will swing. But it just shows what a nation can achieve if they don't waste money on the lunatic boondoggle for doctors that the American health system is.

Get yourselves a proper National Health Service. You'll save a fortune and live longer.

We'll even lend you Tony B Liar for a few years to install it for you.

If you promise to keep him.

Our strength is as the strength of ten because our hearts are pure.

I think that the favourite theory is that childhood obesity can lead to problems in later life.

I put my money on exercise and stress levels as the major factors in the differences in health.

Those European breakfast! Coffee, bread.

Those American Breakfast! Pancakes, syrup, butter.

I met these two guys from Belgium and they were eating their cucumber sandwiches. One said, we were up in Seattle and they had the worst breakfast. First they take these pancakes and put lots of butter on them and then they take syrup. Really bad.

One stat that wasn't in the article i read - life expectancy - is it significantly higher in the UK? Of course to be relevant to the study it would have to be of the studied group and not the population in general.

Guiness! !

BTW, I am 67 and have all my own teeth intact apart from three fillings and one crown.

There was an experiment fairly recently where children were fed the war-time diet and another group were fed a modern diet.
Not only did the war-time group lose weight, but they also grew more.
I cycled three miles to school every day and I am about to go walking in Scotland.

I read that article, and actually used to work with one of the researchers, and the results aren't exactly as black and white as stated (or wherever those statements came from). It is true that the Americans were higher on many of the measures (but not all), but the results were not always statistically significant. For example, they weren't higher on the high blood pressure measure, and were significantly lower on the cholesterol levels, actually (which are more a risk factor than outcome).

There wasn't exactly universal insurance coverage, either (as that doesn't occur in the US naturally, and didn't occur in this sample). It is true for the age and demographic group of interest, insurance coverage was very high for the Americans, though, but at least 13% were uninsured in the lower economic groups. Only 7% were uninsured in the age group 55-64, though -- in any case, that wasn't judged to be a major factor in the results. Different age groups were studied for some of the results (age 40-70), mainly for the clinical measures rather than self-reported ones.

It is definitely not surprising that Americans spent so much more on health care in this study, this is a known, long-established fact and statistic. The US spends more per capita on health care than any country in the world due to its private system. They spend about 50 pct more per capita than Switzerland, which is the next highest country, and 140 pct more than the average OECD country (and there are not more health care resources in the US to account for this, either -- ie, not more physicians, CT scanners or hospital beds per capita -- it's because the prices are higher, basically).

As for why they would be healthier -- it is very surprising to me, also, as I don't think of the British as real health nuts or in that great shape.

Just shop in any American supermarket on a Saturday. One-third of Americans are obese and one-third are merely overweight. And many don't even think they are overweight.

American meal portions must be about 20 % larger than those of Europeans.

I love how people try to make comparisons like:

"Those European breakfast! Coffee, bread.
Those American Breakfast! Pancakes, syrup, butter."

How silly. I could just as easily say:

"English breakfast: beans, blood pudding, streaky bacon, eggs fried in grease"
American breakfast: yoghurt and an orange juice" or "bagel or muffin with coffee". Those are far more typical DAILY breakfasts than pancakes with syrup for MOST Americans.

The idea that everyone in a particular country eats the same thing, or that people who eat pancakes with syrup do it every day is just too silly to get into.

Incidentally, have you ever walked through a supermarket in rural England? Or looked at how many obese Brits there are sitting around a typical pub? I repeat -- the US does NOT have the market on obesity.

Cotswald,
Your a hoot :) .
I'd take Tony anyday in exchange for W but...... no I guess I couldn't do that to my English freinds, besides you probably wouldn't take him anyhow or if you did you'd probaby no what to do with him.

I think it has to do with exercise. There have been studies here that show that seniors - even very elderly in nursing homes - can improve their health through regular light exercise programs.

And Ameicans in that age group tend to get almost NO exercise - just constrantly drive from one place to another. Brits walk a lot more on a regular basis (don't get the car out to go 6 blocks to the 7/11).

They're really healthier than Yanks? Interesting...and surprising. The food is pretty similar in both countries. And Brits consume so much cream & custard!
Maybe because Brits do more walking...I wonder though...

I wonder if the results would change if they did a study of 5-13 year olds.

I do think that cream, cheese, butter, eggs, booze etc. are all fine and people have been eating these things for years with no adverse reaction. The problem comes about when one adds to this a 16oz. steak, cheetos and a lg. shake. Look at all the beautiful foods that the French eat and you don't see too many overwieght elders.

Frankly, I do not believe the study. I suspect they only used English people in the survey. As an exiled Scot, I am appalled at the Scottish diet. No wonder Scots have the highest heart attack rate in the western world.The last time I was there, deep fried Mars Bars were common, vegetables with a meal were notcommon and I was served lasagne with fries (chips in the U.K.).
If indeed the survey is to be believed, it must be due to the exercise that that age group had when younger. They walked everywhere. School buses were rare. People went for food to a store on a daily basis in many cases and they went by "Shank's pony". Another advantage would have been that the male part of the survey grew up doing a sport - soccer ( football as it is correctly called) - that required significant running. This is unlike the dreadful sports of baseball and football (U.S.style ) in the States where real exercise is minimal.

A lot of studies have come out recently about how much more obesity is present in Europe today. In fact, in contrast to the book about French women staying thin all of Europe (the Wetern world) is getting fatter

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...89.htm?chan=gb

I remember that in the Czech Republic, locals would complain how fat people were getting. But everywhere I went in Prague, people seemed model-esque. Finally, out in the countryside, I found out what they are talking about. People who only see slimness in other countries probably just see the metropolitan area like if you hung out in trendy areas of NYC.

This doesn't answer why the British are healthier. I am extremely interested in how this will play out and hope a lot more research goes into it, but I don't have my hopes up too high. My best guess from the evidence is health care and attitudes.

I still have a 30-inch waist and when people say, "D@mn", I always respond, drink red wine instead of beer.

But when a recipe comes from Europe to the United States, the first thing they do is double it and the second thing is add white sugar.

I too am older than 64, but people of that age are beneficiaries of the green ration book.
Expectant and nursing mothers and children got extra rations including codliver oil, orange juice and extra milk.
When bananas came back into the shops, they were only issued on green ration books.
Again, although we love a good moan about the NHS, everyone from cradle to grave gets free medical care and treatment and monitoring in diabetes clinics is excellent.
I have regular tests and examinations including regular eye tests.
We oldies also get free drugs.
I get the impression from American friends that excellent medical care in the US is like the Ritz, open to all.
Just recently a friend told me about his partner waiting for three hours in an American hospital with a suspected stroke.
Although, there are adequate numbers of medical staff in cities, some country districts are very badly served.
Have you ever taken your car to a garage and been asked, "Is it an insurance job, mate?"
If it is, they charge extra.
That's mainly what's wrong with US medicine.

I thought French women stayed so thin because they smoke like chimneys...

That's a fascinating bit of information and several things come to mind as to why it might be so.

1. During the childhood of the UK group rationing was still in effect. In the UK food rationing continued until 1954.

Even with the end of rationing, diets in the UK contained less meat and fats for a considerable period into the lives of the test group.

Even ignoring the health benefits of eating less meat and fats there are studies that suggest that periods of severely reduced caloric intake interspersed with "normal" eating prolong life.

2. As several people have mentioned, car use in the UK, especially during the youth of the group studied was considerably lower in the UK than in the US.

Although I know of no study that confirms it, I suspect that even moderate amounts of exercise early in life provide long term health benefits.

If UK group members continue to walk more, as has been suggested, then there are studies which demonstrate significant health benefits from even moderate exercise later in life.

3. Regular, moderate, alcohol use has been linked to improved health. My impression has always been that there are more teetotalers in the US than in the UK but I have no statistics to support this.

NB: What constitutes "better health" is a matter of definition. Even life expectancy at birth which is slightly higher in the UK than in the US can be misleading.

Interesting that many Brits here attribute rationing to the better health of their age group.
In a famous study of U.S. conscientious objectors who refused to fight in WWI (i think, or WWII) but then volunteered to undergo near starvation for one year study - a study that would never have been done on humane grounds in recent times, actually exhibited better health in many areas attributed to their severe calorie reduction.
Studies in lab animals also indicate the same. I'm not sold on the war rationing angle but wouldn't rule it out either.
I wonder if sex life was included in the study - the new AMA study that is - could make a difference one way or the other!

Well, I read about that guy who did the starvation diet thing and while his heart was healthyish, his bone mass and muscularity equaled that of a little old lady...

I'll stick to my food and keep my strong bones and muscles any day...

As some of you know, I was born in Enland and came to live in the U.S. as a child, my father being American. Upon returning to visit my relatives (Aunt Pat and Uncle Terry are both approaching 70, Aunt Judith is 54) over the past 25 years, I have noticed a few things about their lifestyle.

1. My relatives very rarely eat packaged food. They eat do eat greasy food like fish & chips, and other foods fried in 5 inches of lard. However, the PORTIONS they eat are MUCH smaller than those of their American counterparts. They DO NOT snack.

Aunt Pat to Uncle Terry in a restaurant in Philadelphia: Terry! Just look at what that woman is eating!! That is enough to feed a family of four!!!

2. My relatives are all stick-thin. However, they rarely exercise other than gardening or walking the dogs.

3. They ALL smoke like chimneys. And drink cups and cups of tea all day long.

4. They have HORRID teeth. Sometimes it is hard to even look at them unless they are in a dim room. Aunt Judith's teeth are pretty good, but she is a celebrity and has to look decent for photos. However, she doesn't have the kind of dental work (veneers) like US celebs.

5. Englishmen LOVE the sun. That is why we all flock to Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Majorca, etc. whenever we can. Having lily-white skin doesn't faze us. We throw caution to the wind for some warm rays.

You may be on to something about rationing during WW II. My mother did not grow up eating sugar, and now has an aversion to it. She can't stand anything overly sweet. She also does not snack and eats tiny portions. She said that when she was a child, you did not ever eat between meals.

Another thing: My relatives rarely dine out unless a special occasion. They are mystified why Americans eat in restaurants several times a week. They think that habit is DAFT!!

Cheers