Couch potato Brits are eating their way into an early grave, health experts warn Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health-news/2011/09/08/couch-potato-brits-are-eating-their-way-into-an-early death

TEMPTING as it might be to slump in front of the TV, puffing on a fag, tucking into a takeaway and knocking back booze, it can be fatal – and not just to your waistline.

The inclination to smoke, drink alcohol, scoff junk food and laze around like a couch potato is sending us to an early grave, because all of these factors have been linked to cancer.

In the past 10 years, cancer rates around the world have rocketed by a fifth.

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The disease is claiming an increasing number of lives, confirms a major report from the World Cancer Research Fund. And the worst tragedy is, many of these deaths could be prevented.

The WCRF reckons as many as 80,000 Brits every year could avoid being diagnosed with “The Big C” if only they ate more healthily, lost a few excess pounds and exercised regularly.

But somehow that message is getting lost. And experts blame cheap junk food and TV advertising for leading us away from healthy habits.

Professor Martin Wiseman, medical and scientific adviser for the WCRF, says: “Every day in the UK people are being diagnosed with a cancer that could have been prevented.

“Yet many people are still unaware that risk factors such as alcohol and obesity affect cancer chances. Meanwhile from TV advertising to the pricing of food, our society works in a way that discourages people from adopting healthy habits.

“If we continue down the same path – where people become less and less physically active and rely more and more on highly-processed and energy-dense foods – the problem will only get worse.”

And if we do not try to break bad habits, the outlook is bleak. Prof Wiseman warns: “If nothing is done, we can expect an inexorable rise in obesity and inactivity around the world – even in places where hunger is common. This will lead to more cases of cancer as surely as night follows day.”

The WCRF fear the number of preventable cancer diagnoses – as well as cases of heart disease and diabetes – will spiral as more of us get fatter and lazier.

Every year, 304,000 Brits are diagnosed with cancer – breast cancer is the most common (47,000 cases) followed by lung cancer (40,000). And out of that number, 156,000 will die.

We all have a 26% chance of developing the killer disease by 75 and an 11% likelihood of dying from it by the same age.

As well as the terrible cost in human lives, there is also a high social price to pay.

Cancer costs the UK around £18billion a year – £13billion in lost productivity through death or disability, while £5billion goes to the NHS and hospices.

And if you think this is a shocking figure, it is expected to soar to £25billion by 2020.

This is not just a problem here at home. Around the world, two-thirds of deaths (36.1 million) are caused by cancer, heart or lung disease and diabetes.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called it “a public health emergency in slow motion”.

Each of these illnesses, the WCRF says, “share a number of common risk factors – smoking, obesity, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity”.

Dr Kate Allen, director of science and communications, says: “Taken together, the four diseases have by far the biggest global death toll.

“Both in terms of human misery and economic consequences, they are one of the biggest

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health-news/2011/09/08/couch-potato-brits-are-eating-their-way-into-an-early-grave-health-experts-warn-115875-23404056/#ixzz1XduKYp6x
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