Carrying excess weight has often been linked with an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, and now recent research has confirmed the link with cancer. Scientists believe that thousands of lives could be saved from cancer each year if people simply lost some weight.

The World Cancer Research Fund study found that being overweight is linked to around 19,000 deaths from the disease each year – deaths that could have been prevented if these people had just been at a healthy weight. Researchers involved in the study believe that people could avoid getting cancer if they managed to maintain a body mass index (BMI) of between 19 and 25. The cancers that could be prevented include breast, bowel, oesophagus, kidney, pancreas, endometrium and gall bladder.

 

The cancer research fund is advising people to aim to be as lean as possible without becoming underweight. It stresses that after quitting smoking, a healthy weight is the most important thing a person can do for cancer prevention. The scientists believe that about a third of the most common cancers could be prevented if people ate healthily, were physically active and maintained a healthy weight.

 

This study comes one month after research revealing that a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables has also been shown to significantly reduce the risk of cancer. Other studies have shown that a daily portion of mushrooms and a handful of walnuts were shown to help reduce breast cancer risk by up to a third; eating oily fish rich in omega 3 was shown to prevent prostate cancer and eating broccoli can prevent stomach cancer.

Staying physically active could help cut your chances of developing cancer according to scientists from the National Cancer Centre in Japan. They looked at 80,000 men and women aged between 45 and 77 and found the most active women had a 16 percent lower risk of developing cancer than the least active, while the most active men had a 13 per cent lower risk. Physical activity was found to particularly cut the risk of stomach cancer in women and of colon, liver and pancreatic cancer in men.

Inorganic phosphate salts – common additives used to enhance the flavour and texture of processed ham and bacon and also added to bread, cakes and cheeses – could fuel the growth of cancers according to research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Eating large amounts of processed meat has already been linked to increased risk of bowel cancer. These latest findings from a Seoul National University Study into the impact of phosphates on mice showed that those on a high additive diet developed tumours more quickly than those on a conventional diet. Further study is required, but the researchers believe there is now enough evidence to start looking for a link between phosphates and cancer in people. They suspect that phosphates increase the growth of tumours by interfering in the chemical signals between cells.