Murray CJL, et al. - In this systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, researchers assessed the consumption of major foods and nutrients across 195 countries to quantify the effect of their suboptimal intake on non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality and morbidity. They estimated the proportion of disease-specific burden attributable to each dietary risk factor among adults aged ≥ 25 years via a comparative risk assessment approach. High sodium intake, low whole-grain intake, and low fruit intake were found to be the leading dietary risk factors for deaths and disability-adjusted life-years globally and in several countries. The investigators suggested that diet improvement could prevent ~20% of global deaths. According to findings, poor dietary habits are linked to a range of chronic diseases, and may be a major contributor to NCD mortality in all countries worldwide. This finding underlined the urgent need for coordinated global efforts to improve human diet quality. Given the complexity of dietary behaviors and the wide range of dietary influences, however, the authors noted that improving diet will require active collaboration across the food system, as well as policies that target multiple food system sectors.