What we eat can not only affect how well we are in our lives, it can determine how long we live.

In a single year, poor diet played a part in nearly half of all deaths from heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The research from Tufts University blamed 10 nutrients for 45.4 per cent or 318,656 cardiometabolic deaths in 2012.

The researchers found that the largest number of diet-related cardiometabolic (CMD) deaths were related to eating too much salt, processed and unprocessed meat and sugary drinks, while not eating enough fruit, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, omega-3 fats and low polyunsaturated fats (found in walnuts, flax and sunflower seeds and fish).