Abstract

Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death in the modern era. An underappreciated primary cause of these diseases is poor diet quality. In fact, poor diet quality has surpassed all other mortality risk factors globally, accounting for approximately 11 million deaths annually. Likewise, in the United States, poor diet quality is the leading underlying cause of death and even surpasses cigarette smoking in rates of preventable death. Paralleling these trends, poor diet quality is considered a leading risk factor for years of life lost and years lived with chronic disability. Furthermore, the current COVID-19 pandemic highlights the intersection between communicable and noncommunicable diseases, given the emerging evidence implicating nutrition factors in underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms in COVID-19 disease susceptibility and severity.