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The report underlined the close links between diet and a range of diseases:

• Scottish men and women have the highest premature mortality from coronary heart disease

• Scottish men and women haveone of the highest rates of stroke in the Western World

• overweight affects over half the middle-aged adults in Scotland

• the middle-aged Scot has a blood pressure which rates as one of the highest in the Western World

• rates of lung, breast and bowel cancers are very high in Scotland

The Government acknowledged that the Scottish diet is, next to smoking, the most significant reason for Scotland's poor health record - premature death is twice as likely in Scotland as in many western countries.