A worldwide assessment of how what we eat can put our health at risk shows too much salt, too few wholegrains and too little fruit are contributing to millions of premature deaths every year.

Dr Marco Springmann of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food was among the contributors to the report.

The analysis, published in The Lancet, is part of the Global Burden of Disease Study and aimed to evaluate the consumption of major foods and nutrients across 195 countries and to quantify their impact on health. The authors say it provides a comprehensive picture of the potential impact of sub-optimal diet on mortality and morbidity caused by non-communicable diseases, highlighting the need for improving diet across nations. This could could potentially prevent one in every five deaths globally, they say.