Obesity and cancer evidence makes action on childhood weight imperative

Commenting on the 500-page World Cancer Research Fund report, 'Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective',  the International Obesity TaskForce, the policy and advocacy arm of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, said the warning on cancer risks, coming hard on the heels of the UK Government's Foresight Report forecasting that half of all adults and a quarter of all children could be obese by 2050, meant that society-wide action to prevent obesity was even more urgently needed.

"This second report shows that the fatter you are, the greater the risk of cancer. Our assessment is that there is much clearer evidence associating not just diet and activity, but overweight and obesity," said Prof Philip James, chair of the IOTF, who was in Washington DC to launch the WCRF report in the USA.

"We have been aware of breast cancer, particularly post-menopausal breast cancer, cancer of the large bowel, and cancer of the pancreas which are among the major concerns, along with endometrial cancer, but the evidence 10 years on is now even stronger. No-one can continue to make the false assumption that being fat doesn't really matter. There is abundant evidence linking obesity as a major factor in certain cancers, so remaining slim and minimising weight gain throughout your lifetime combined with an optimal diet and physical activity is important not just for avoiding obesity, but avoiding associated cancers.”

Prof James, one of the report's expert co-authors, emphasized the report's evidence supporting exclusive breast feeding with clear benefits for mother as well as child. "It's very striking that, if mothers breastfeed, they really do reduce their risk of breast cancer. We've known for years that the baby benefits and may have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese.

"This makes it all the more imperative to take strong, effective and urgent measures to prevent childhood obesity and reduce the prevalence of overweight as much as possible. Children should be enabled to begin their lives with the best chance possible - at the lowest part of the healthy weight range - and should aim to stay at that level throughout their lives. But we know that more than a quarter of all children are overweight or obese, and that reaches almost one third by the time they become young adults.

"Successive reports have also shown that obesity and related chronic diseases impose a major burden not only on individuals in terms of personal health and finances, but present an economic burden on the whole of society. We need to re-think our whole strategic approach to diet, activity and health - something world's health ministers agreed unanimously in 2004 - to ensure that for everyone the food we eat is health-giving and not contributing to a harmful diet, leading not only to obesity but cancer as well as other diseases, including notably type 2 diabetes which also threatens to be a scourge."

Several leading members of the International Obesity TaskForce were involved in WCRF expert panel including Professors Shiriki Kumanyika, Jaap Seidell and Ricardo Uauy. Prof James was a member of the expert group and co-author of the first WCRF report on diet and cancer published in 1997.

For further information contact:

Neville Rigby

Director of Policy and Public Affairs

International Association for the Study of Obesity/International Obesity TaskForce

231 North Gower Street

London NW1 2NR

Tel +442076911902

Mobile +447939250347

Fax +448707051233

email: nrigby@iaso.org

www.iaso.org / www.iotf.org/ www.preventionalliance.net / www.easoobesity.org