How Fat influences cancer
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The Diet-Induced Cancer Epidemic.
'The Widening Problem' (Background info)
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, and poses one of the greatest challenges to public health as we enter the new millennium. The world health organisation estimates that 1 billion of the world's population is obese with 300 million being considered clinically obese. 1
The prevalence of obesity is assessed by calculating the body mass index (BMI). This is based on the weight in kg divided by the height in meters squared (kg/m2). A BMI between 18.5-25 is considered healthy, 25-30 is considered overweight while a BMI greater than 30 is considered obese.
This trend towards a wider girth has also reached our shores, figures from the 1999-2000 Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study (AusDiab) showed that 20.8% of women and 39% of men over the age of 19 were obese. These values represent a 2 fold increase in prevalence over the past decade...