A very interesting article:

When it comes to living a long life, Italy is the place to be. The
high-heeled boot surrounded by five seas is ranked the healthiest
country on Earth in the Bloomberg Global Health Index of 163 countries.
A baby born in Italy can expect to live to be an octogenarian. But 2,800
miles south in Sierra Leone, the average newborn will die by 52.

Italy, strikingly, scored higher than other developed countries despite
a rapidly aging population and well-rehearsed economic challenges.

Ireland, with a much younger population ranked 22, just ahead of the UK
but less healthy than poorer EU peers Greece and Portugal.

While Italy is among the world's most developed economies, its regarded
as the sick-man of the EU. Growth has stagnated for decades. Almost 40pc
of its youngsters are out of work and the national government is saddled
with one of the world's highest debt loads relative to the size of its
economy.

Even so, Italians are in far better shape physically than Americans,
Canadians or Britons, who all suffer from higher blood pressure and
cholesterol and poorer mental health.

Italy also has "an excess of doctors", said Tom Kenyon, a physician and
ceo of the global relief organization Project Hope. Case in point, one
of the country's most watched and long-running television shows is
called 'A Doctor in the Family'.

Then there is the diet, rich in vegetables and drizzled with extra
virgin olive oil. Adam Drewnowski, director of the Centre for Public
Health Nutrition at the University of Washington, has written about the
importance of having access to fresh produce, fruit, lean meats and fish.

Each country in the index was graded based on variables such as life
expectancy, causes of death and health risks ranging from high blood
pressure and tobacco use to malnutrition and the availability of clean
water.

Iceland, Switzerland, Singapore and Australia rounded out the top five
most-healthy countries in the index.

Democracies have by far the healthiest populations, the report shows.

Cuba, at 31, is the highest ranked dictatorship, but it still comes in
ahead of the US, at number 34 with a health grade of 73.05 out of 100.
The US ranking for prevalence of overweight people is 67.3 - tipping the
scale as one of the world's heaviest nations.

The poorest US states - Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and West
Virginia - are heaviest with more than 35pc of their populations
considered obese, according to US Centres for Disease Control.

The Bloomberg ranking was based on a weighted composite score made-up of
factors such as causes of death, life expectancy and survivor ratio at
landmark ages for a maximum of 100. The researchers then knocked off
points for negative factors - including obesity and environmental risks.

Separate data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation &
Development (OECD) also showed the US well behind other rich countries
and falling.

When it comes to happiness, the US ranked 19th among the 34 OECD
countries, with the Nordic states dominating the top of the happiness
charts, and Ireland clocking in mid-table at 15.

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