Cancer Research UK: Obese now outnumber smokers by two to one

OBESE people now outnumber smokers by two to one, Cancer Research UK has warned, as it said obesity causes more cases of some cancers than cigarettes.

Just days after the charity was heavily criticised for its new obesity campaign on social media, it said more needs to be done to help people lose weight to reduce their risk of cancer.

Smoking is still the UK’s biggest preventable cause of cancer and carries a much higher risk of the disease than obesity.

But obesity is a cause of 13 different types of cancer, and trumps smoking as a leading cause for four of these types, Cancer Research UK said.

Its analysis shows that excess weight causes around 1,900 more cases of bowel cancer than smoking in the UK each year.

It also causes 1,400 more cases of kidney cancer, 460 more cases of ovarian cancer and 180 cases of liver cancer. National data shows that around one in three adults in the UK are obese, while around a third more are overweight. One in 10 children are obese by the age of five, rising to one in five by age 11.

The Cancer Research UK analysis used data from 2017 to show there were around 13.4 million non-smoking adults who were obese.

Meanwhile, 6.3 million adult smokers were not obese and

1.5 million adult smokers were.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “As smoking rates fall and obesity rates rise, we can clearly see the impact on a national health crisis when the Government puts policies in place – and when it puts its head in the sand.

“Our children could be a smoke-free generation, but we’ve hit a devastating record high for childhood obesity, and now we need urgent Government intervention to end the epidemic.”