WEBVTT

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I’m from Ireland.

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I grew up in the Lake District in Ireland.

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And here we are in the Lake District -

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in Italy.

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I grew up with six brothers;
we are one of seven sons.

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Our mother was a teacher,
our father a musician,

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and we lived on a fifty-acre farm.

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Now, the reason I’m telling you this story

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is because back then
there was a certain way of life

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that I would like you
to capture in your mind

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and hold onto it throughout this talk.

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We grew our own food;
it was natural, homegrown.

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Wild fish ran through the river.

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We were good at catching them.

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We still are.

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Every animal had a name.

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The cows had names.

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They lived in the nature.

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They provided us with meat and milk.

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Nutrition.

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How about lifestyle?

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The farmers were busy
from early morning, in the afternoon,

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and they worked physically
until after sunset.

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I want to leave that with you,
and I want to talk about health.

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And more specifically,
chronic disease killers.

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Okay, the reality is, today in Europe,

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over 86 percent of deaths
are due to chronic disease.

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These people are living devastating lives;

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their loved ones, suffering.

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It's a terrible situation.

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In fact, by the time I finish this talk,

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12 people in Europe will have died
because of chronic disease.

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Chronic disease deaths are premature.

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But yet, we are living longer;
the longevity line is going up.

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But how about the quality-of-life line?

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The quality-of-life line
is not staying with the longevity line.

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What it means is that people
spend maybe up to 20 years in poor health

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before they die prematurely.

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Oh yes, we're busy talking
about terrorist attacks, aviation safety,

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the weather, the economic situation.

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Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

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It’s time to talk about that.

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Okay, it is now time to introduce you
to these chronic disease killers,

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chronic disease killers
that lie within each and every one of us -

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let’s make no mistake about it.

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So, number one chronic disease killer -
cardiovascular disease.

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Cardiovascular disease
claims 40 percent of lives in Europe,

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and by the way, these numbers
are similar - maybe even worse -

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throughout the rest of our planet.

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Let's take number two: cancer.

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Cancer is a disease
involving abnormal growth

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which invades and takes over the body.

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We all know about formidable cancer.

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In the European Commission,

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we have the European
Cancer Information System,

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and we can tell you
that this year, in Europe,

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there will be 3.9 million
new cases of cancer.

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Over 1.9 million people will die.

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Let’s take number three:

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diabetes.

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Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders

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which involve high levels of sugar
in the bloodstream

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over prolonged periods of time.

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Ladies and gentlemen,
they are the three big killers,

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contributing to 86 percent of deaths.

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So, what do we do?

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What do we do to defuse
these chronic disease time bombs

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that lie within us?

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Oh, hang on!

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Maybe some of them are preventable.

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Would you like to find out
how preventable these diseases are?

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Let’s go back then to number one:
cardiovascular disease.

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Evidence tells us that - wait for it -

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90 percent of cardiovascular
disease is preventable.

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90, not 9 - 90.

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Take cancer.

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Between 40 and 45 percent
of cancers are preventable.

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And let’s take diabetes.

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80 percent of diabetes cases
are preventable.

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Well, this is just fantastic news!

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It’s amazing. It's fantastic!

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But if we look at the reality,
what's happening today,

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if we look at health
expenditure in Europe,

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it's about ten percent of GDP.

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That doesn't mean millions,
it doesn't mean billions;

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it means trillions of euros.

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But the reality is,

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of all that money we spend on health,

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less than one percent goes to prevention.

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So, we are not here to name,
to blame, or to shame.

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It is what it is.

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We as humanity
have created that situation,

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but I have more good news.

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If we talk about prevention,

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there are two main ways
to prevent disease.

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Number one -

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and now I want to bring you back
to that image of my six brothers and I,

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back in Ireland.

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Number one - nutrition.

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What we eat every day.

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And number two is lifestyle.

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Let’s talk a little bit about nutrition.

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Do you know how much sugar, salt, and fat
you have put through your system today?

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Have you eaten at least 400 grams
of fruit and vegetables today?

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That’s about five portions.

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How about your red meat consumption?

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In Europe, we’re eating double
the amount of red meat we should

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and half the amount of fish we should.

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How about your legumes? Your fiber?

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Then lifestyle.

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Lifestyle - we all know it -

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smoking, it's very bad.

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In the European Code Against Cancer,
it’s the number one killer.

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And the number two
cause of cancer in the Code

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is passive smoking.

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So, if you don't smoke,

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do not accept to inhale
other people's passive smoke.

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Alcohol? Limit it.

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Limit it as much as you can.

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And the big one - physical activity.

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Remember the farmers years ago?

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From morning to night?

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What are we doing all day?
We are doing this.

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And then we go home, and we do this.

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And then we go to bed.

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So basically, they’re the main things.

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Now, 40 years or more have passed on.

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Today, I’m in the Lake District in Italy,

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and I love it here.

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I’m a JRC scientist.

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I am a scientist working
in public health on chronic disease

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for the European Commission’s
Joint Research Centre.

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Now, I need to tell you

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that the EU and the Commission
does not have a legal mandate

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to impose legislation on the member states
to help the situation.

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That is up to the member states,
the countries of the European Union.

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But we do, and we can do,

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and we do a lot of very good work
on spearheading projects.

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Let me give just one or two examples,

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and then we will go
on towards the end of the talk.

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In the Joint Research Centre,
we have mapped school food policies.

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The children are the future.

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When children learn good habits -

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and the school is a controlled setting;
it's an excellent setting -

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they will keep those good habits,

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just like if they learn bad habits,
it would be difficult to change.

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With those school food policies,

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we then got the member states together,
and they all exchanged practices:

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What do you do?

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How can we fix the situation?

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How can we improve the situation?

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We’ve looked to see

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how to improve the uptake of fruit,
vegetables, and water in schools.

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We’ve even looked
at national dietary requirements,

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and I can give you some
shocking statistics now - let's do it.

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If you take plain rice -
plain rice in its natural form

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should contain, or does contain,
about 0.5 grams per 100 grams.

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That's a half a percentage.

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But if you look what's on the market,
what are people buying and eating?

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Some of those products
contain over 30 grams -

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it's added sugar -

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30 grams per 100 grams.

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So that’s like 60, 70 times more sugar.

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We looked at breakfast cereals,

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breakfast cereals all over Europe,
the various categories.

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There’s a chart from
0 to 35 grams per 100 grams.

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It was red, especially for the children:

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the children's cereals are full of sugar.

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They're going to school

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having already exceeded,
maybe, their daily dose.

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We’ve also looked
at front-of-pack labeling.

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I asked you earlier:

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do you know how much sugar,
salt, and fat you've eaten today?

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Well, to be honest you'd be a genius
to be able to find that out

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because it is very difficult.

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Front-of-pack labeling.

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When you buy something
and you want to it eat it or drink it,

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can you look at the back of it
and read and understand what's there?

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We are looking to improve that situation.

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We are mapping all of 
the front-of-pack labeling techniques,

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and we will spearhead a project
to hopefully change that.

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If we cannot communicate
this to the people,

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then the people won’t make the change.

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Okay, there were
some examples of what we do.

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We could go on,

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but I need to come
towards the end of the speech.

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Now, this is not just -

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if you take a step
on nutrition and lifestyle,

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it is not just about reducing
your risk of chronic disease.

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There are two other fantastic advantages.

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Number one.

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Think about it:

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if 86 percent of us are dying
because of chronic disease,

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how many of us are already toxic?

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How do we feel? Do we feel good?

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If we take a step in this direction,
we will feel better.

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We will think better.

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We will sleep better.

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We will move better.

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We will do everything better.

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Before, when you thought,
"This is a burden; this is a stress" -

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that will suddenly become
"It's a challenge; I will get over this."

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Our wellbeing should not
be underestimated.

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That is for you:
this is really for all of us.

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And there's a second big advantage:
our precious environment.

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Imagine if millions of people
make this little move,

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towards eating and their lifestyle.

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Just making that change.

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Cycling, walking to work - leave the car.

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The air would become cleaner.

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Take the stairs, not the lift.

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You save energy.

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Energy, climate change -
we know the story.

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These are a lot of factors that we can do.

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So there are so many advantages,

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and looking at these figures and numbers
and saying, “I’m going to do something."

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And now, we're almost at the end.

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And I am looking at you
because I have one request:

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to please take away
even one thing with you.

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That maybe from tonight or tomorrow,

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you will go for a walk after dinner
before you go to bed.

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Maybe look at your fruit and veg uptake.

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Maybe drink more water.

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Please take that with you.

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You will feel better.

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Your loved ones will really appreciate it.

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And maybe then,

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we can turn the tide of chronic disease.

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(Applause)