Health & Medicine

Obesity Latest News and Update: Three Out Of Four People Have No Idea About The Connection Between Obesity And Cancer

Johnson D
First Posted: Sep 12, 2016 04:30 AM EDT

It was recently revealed that 3 out of four or 75 percent of people living in the United Kingdom have been found to have zero idea about the relationship between obesity and cancer, reported the new Cancer Research UK.

According to Medical Xpress, it was found that women are more informed than men about what type of cancer obesity may cause. It was also stated in the report that there is about 78 percent or three-quarters of the total population has no idea that obesity was linked to ovarian cancer, over two-thirds or 69 percent didn't known that obesity can be linked with breast cancer, and about 54 percent have no idea that obesity may cause pancreatic cancer.

The nationwide survey also revealed that people with low socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to know about the connection.  Although the government had implemented the recent sugar tax, there are still much more work that needs to be done to address the growing problem. It was also found that one in three children are leaving primary school being overweight or obese.

Like previously reported, the charity still thinks the government should restrict marketing by making sure that junk food advertisements are not aired on TV before 9pm, and also set mandatory targets for the food and drinks industry to lower down sugar and fat content of their products, reported The Telegraph.

Cancer Research UK's chief clinician Professor Peter Johnson, said that people should stop looking at cancer as "an inevitability" and start asking themselves what they could do to make sure they have a minimized chance of developing obesity. "Historically there has been a sense that there was nothing one could do about the risk of getting cancer, but as time goes on it's clear that there are more and more things we can do, and maintaining a healthy body weight and reducing obesity are clearly two very important components of that," he said according to Newsweek.

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