Cancer & Obesity – the real story

The story

I was driving to the Celtic Manor for a swim on Thursday morning when Radio 4's Today Programme announced that, in the largest study to date, it has been found that obesity causes cancer. Really?

The Independent also went with the causation headline: "Obesity increases the chances of 10 common cancers study finds" and so did The Daily Mail: "Obesity is blamed for 12,000 cancer cases every year: Being overweight can increase chance of developing some forms of the disease by 60%.

The BBC web site did a bit better by reporting "Being overweight or obese 'linked to 10 common cancers'". However, the general media message on Thursday morning was - as if the overweight don't have enough to worry about, now you're going to get cancer. Or are you...?