Was looking at this today, primarily because I was interested in the rate of coronary heart disease here. A couple of things caught my eye...

1. That the rate of heart disease here is very low (ranking 175 out of 191 countries). I am surprised at that because of the chocolate / cheese thing. Its of course clear to me that weight isn't high because of the amount of exercise taken, but I didn't expect heart disease to be so low. Any idea what is behind the stats?

2. The thing I wasn't looking for but surprised me was the high levels of Alzheimers/dementia here (6th highest in the world) - all the high rate countries are in the developed West. Is this because these two conditions only manifest themselves in old age and so are more prevalent in countries with high life expectancies? Or is there something more than that?

1) Heart disease is also prevented by exercise. Plus, I haven't noticed that people eat fondue and chocolate three times per day...

2) You're right, these are old age diseases, so only really occur in developed countries. Even among old people in developing countries, these diseases are not likely to be diagnosed correctly.

I'd say that this nation is pretty healthy and a lot of people use the great outdoors to promote their own health. As far as diet is concerned, there's certainly an over dependency on dairy products in general, but you rarely see Mr & Mrs Blob and the junior salad dodgers in Switzerland.

With regards to Alzheimer's, I'd suggest that the above average life expectancy may distort the figures ahead of other western European nations. It might also be linked to the more tertiary occupations and stress levels that are clearly the rule rather than the exception in Switzerland. An uncle of mine died with a condition that the experts couldn't specifically diagnose as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, he had a very high powered job and lifestyle and only just made 70.

Does anybody have stats on dairy consumption in general? Raw milk is reasonably easy to get, but I'm interested in total consumption of dairy products to see how it compares

Very interesting... and quite comforting as I hurtle through middle age. Take it easy with the diet and get some exercise, don't smoke, keep alcohol under control... and with any luck you'll probably dodge a heart attack. After that it's probably just genetics ! (Very sad to see the high suicide rate though)