Did you know that what you choose to eat each day is the greatest predictor of you living a long, healthy life?  

According to a new study released by the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), poor diet and nutrition were the leading causes of disease burden in the US and contributed to more health loss in 2010 than smoking, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar.

First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks during a "Let's Move!" Cities, Towns, and Counties Anniversary event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, July 10, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

As part of a celebration held yesterday for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties initiative, lead researcher, Dr. Chris Murray, briefed local elected officials from 39 communities across the country on the importance of this data.

The First Lady echoed its importance, stating:

The key here is that the data from this report goes all the way down to the county level, which means that you’ll be able to see which issues are affecting your communities the most.  And that means that you’ll be able to connect the dots a little bit better, more efficiently, between your community’s nutrition and its rates of diabetes or heart disease.  You’ll be able to see how much physical activity the people in your communities are reporting.  And once you have all this information, you’ll be able to make more effective decisions to really focus your resources and programming to find solutions that fit the needs of your community.

Curious? Check out how your county stacks up! The report features an interactive, online tool that allows you to search data on life expectancy, diet, physical activity, hypertension, and a whole host of other indicators for your specific county. For more information on the findings from this report, please visit http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/.

Check out the data and encourage your local leaders to become a Let’s Move! City, Town or County by signing up here: http://www.healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org/.