The children eating their way to cancer: Expert warns of obesity timebomb

The children eating their way to cancer: Expert warns of obesity timebomb

By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 1:34 AM on 04th February 2009

Children are facing an 'explosion' in obesity-related cancers thanks to junk food and a lack of exercise, an expert warned last night.

Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones says thousands will die if parents and ministers do not take the childhood obesity epidemic more seriously.

Obesity is linked to cancers including those of the kidney, breast, colon, liver and prostate. It can also lead to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, and experts warn the rising tide of these diseases could bankrupt the NHS.


Professor Pritchard-Jones says it's crucial that children learn healthy eating habits so they don't develop cancers and other obesity-related problems later in life

Professor Pritchard-Jones, president of the European Society for Paediatric Oncology, said eating more healthily and taking more exercise would not help stave off cancer in childhood.

But it would encourage them to lead a better lifestyle as adults, cutting the risk of having life-threatening diseases later.

Some 17 per cent of British children - 900,000 - are obese, so fat that their health is in danger.

Two years ago Government scientists said that without action, this figure would soar to 25 per cent by 2050.

Professor Pritchard-Jones said: 'Childhood is when the habits of a lifetime are established. If you want healthy adults you start by making healthy children.

'The chronic risk factors for cancer in adults, such as smoking, obesity and diet, are habits established in childhood.

'If we don't do something about tackling how much exercise our young people take and how concerned they are about what they eat and their weight, we are going to have another explosion of cancers.'



The rates of cancers linked to obesity are already increasing, with prostate up by 38.9 per cent in ten years and liver up by 33.4 per cent. But experts warn the 'explosion' will become apparent in the next couple of decades when those born in the Fifties and Sixties reach old age.

Last week, it emerged that Britain's adult obesity rate was 23 per cent, twice that of France.

Experts warn that by 2050 more than half of adults will be obese, with disastrous consequences for the NHS and taxpayers.

Other effects of obesity include erectile dysfunction and problems during pregnancy.

Recent figures show survival rates for many cancers are far lower than those in western Europe and on a par with Poland.

Dr David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said: 'Cancer is one of the least recognised consequences of obesity and one of the most serious.

'It won't be just an occasional case - we're going to see a vast increase in the cancer rate. It's serious for the NHS and could push it towards bankruptcy.'

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'Whatever their weight, children need to eat well and be active.

'Our Change4Life programme is about helping families change their lifestyles for the better.

'Children who are carrying too much fat are at risk of developing a host of serious illnesses.

'Keeping a healthy body is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of getting cancer.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1135427/The-children-eating-way-cancer-Expert-warns-obesity-timebomb.html