Fat People and Cancer Connection

Obesity is second only to smoking as leading cause of cancer, study finds.

"Researchers say [that] obesity is causing more and more cases of cancer. ...

According to the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], 127 million Americans are overweight or obese. That's two out of three people."

"The results of a landmark study on the causes of cancer" indicate that "what we eat [and] how much we weigh matter much more than experts first thought."

The publication, by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, involved a "compilation of 7,000 other studies," and found "a connection between obesity and six types of common cancers."

The study "involved nine independent teams of scientists from around the world, hundreds of peer reviewers, and 21 international experts who analyzed" thousands of large-scale studies.

The study, which took five years to develop, indicates that "[e]xcess body fat increases the risk of cancer of the colon, kidney, pancreas, esophagus, and uterus as well as postmenopausal breast cancer."

The study also suggests that people should "forget eating bacon, sausage, and lunchmeat," because there is no "completely safe" amount.

"Every 1.7 ounces of processed meat consumed a day increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent," according to the study. The especially significant risk associated with processed meets may be due to the presence of carcinogens in "smoked meat, and the nitrates and excess salt in processed meats," according to Cancer Institute nutritionist Karen Collins.

The study author Dr. Walter J. Willett, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and 20 co-authors, compiled the 517-page report, entitled Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective.

Their analysis of the studies found that "[e]xcess body fat influences the body's hormones, and these changes can make it more likely for cells to undergo the kind of abnormal growth that leads to cancer."

In short, "[t]he risk from excess weight begins at birth." Therefore, obese girls who begin menstruation earlier in life "will have more menstrual cycles. This extended exposure to estrogen is associated with increased risk for premenopausal breast cancer." The researchers stressed the fact that "[n]ot smoking is the most important thing one can do to reduce the risk of cancer."

"[o]besity is on course to overtake tobacco as the leading risk factor for cancer in America, according to [the] report." In fact, Dr. Willett "predicted that over the next decade 'obesity will become the number one risk factor for cancer,' as obesity increases and the number of smokers decreases."

He added that this "finding was a call to action for clinicians, who he said should begin counseling patients about the danger of excess weight with 'the first few pounds gained or first few extra inches of abdominal girth,'" rather than current practice, where clinicians may wait "until patients need to lose 30 pounds or more," to encourage them to lose weight.

W. Philip T. James, M.D., Dr.Sc., chairman of the London-based International Obesity Task Force, and a panel member, insists that "the panel went to great lengths to ensure that their findings were based solely on scientific evidence,".

"To this end, researchers working on the project reviewed every published study on weight and cancer to come up with the 7,000 studies on which they base their conclusions and recommendations."

"This is not a report from a select group of people who have their own biases. It has been done in a three-tier system to make sure it is as rigorous and up to date and savagely analyzed as any group could do."