Researchers say more than 100,000 cancer diagnoses every year are directly attributable to obesity.

It’s one thing to be told obesity leads to cancer; it’s quite another to put numbers to that notion, because as the old saying goes, the numbers don’t lie.

According to a new report on the link between cancer and obesity, being grossly overweight is responsible for more than 100,000 newly diagnosed cancers per year.  That’s right – obesity causes 100,500 cancer diagnoses every year.  In the U.S. alone!

These findings aren’t from a university study, either – they’re directly from the world’s foremost authority on cancer, the American Institute for Cancer Research.

The researchers discovered this link by combing through past national surveys that found a wealth of linkages between cancer incidence and obesity.  They then combined those with their own research, and came away with some truly eye-popping findings on just how much of an increased risk for cancer obesity creates.

Consider the following “by the numbers” estimates:

49:  Percentage of endometrial cancer diagnoses related to obesity per year
35:  Percentage of esophageal cancer diagnoses related to obesity per year
13,900:  The estimated drop in the number of annual kidney cancer diagnoses if more people were thin

And that’s just the beginning.  While further research is likely to show that obesity causes even more cancers, the AICR believes the number of breast, colon, gallbladder and pancreatic cancers would also drop if more people were thin.

As shocking as these numbers are, perhaps more shocking is the fact that many people aren’t aware this link even exists.  And “shocking” is the operative word, because the survey’s publisher, Terry Slavin, told CNN in February that he was “shocked to discover the number of people that don’t know about the [obesity/cancer] link.”

Slavin surveyed a total of 40,000 people spanning over 39 countries and found that respondents most oblivious to this fact were those living in African countries and East Asian countries (49 percent and 41 percent, respectively).

Unfortunately, Americans didn’t fare much better.  According to Slavin’s findings, 40 percent of Americans were clueless about this link.  Way too high (then again, 25 percent of respondents didn’t think smoking led to cancer, so maybe the survey respondents were all just a bunch of dunderheads)!

We all know what it takes to stay healthy and lean, but we can sometimes lose sight of the fact that our efforts to remain lean should be for reasons other than trying to impress the opposite sex.  Because when it comes right down to it, all we do to live a healthy life through quality nutrition and regular exercise goes back to our wanting to live a long, disease-free life.  And by staying thin throughout your life, you’re much more likely to achieve that end.

Sources:
cbsnews.com
cnn.com
abcnews.go.com