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In what way is it obvious that obesity leads to cancer?

Toine 9y ago
Google « obesity cancer », you’ll find many. It’s just that I thought it was common knowledge by now..
dreamdu5t 9y ago
Because like smoking it’s obviously unnatural to eat like crap and sit on the computer/couch/car all day. If not obvious then not surprising. Obesity is the epitome and result ohf an unhealthy lifestyle of no exercise and eating junk food.
- marindez 9y ago
  Obesity is obviously unnatural and unhealthy and I still don't see how it is obviously linked to cancer.
flachsechs 9y ago
i'll go out on a limb and agree with you. it's not "obvious" that obesity is linked to cancer unless you view the world through hindsight-glasses. skinny athletic people get cancer too. it wasn't even "obvious" for most of the 20th century cigarettes gave you cancer. people have short memories. a contemporary example: is it "obvious" right now that sugar gives you cancer? because to a lot of people it is blindingly, astoundingly obvious, and to some that sounds like conspiracy theory nonsense. i don't understand this aversion to doing "obvious" science -- we have to do science to make things obvious, not the other way around.
jlebrech 9y ago
putting more unhealthy things into your mouth causes cancer, pretty obvious
- shats 9y ago
  it's actually quite easy to consume a caloric surplus with only "healthy" foods. beans, steak avocado, nuts are all examples of "healthy" foods with high nutrient density and high caloric density.
  - jlebrech 9y ago
    I just noticed you slipped in steak https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/health/report-links-some-types-of-cancer-with-processed-or-red-meat.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/health/report-links-some-... If you overeat of a Standard American Diet you increase the risk of heart disease and cancer.
kgwgk 9y ago
Higher body mass means a larger amount of tissues which can develop cancer.
- kgwgk 9y ago
  I don’t know why the downvotes. Everything else being equal, more body tissues can only mean higher cancer incidence (even if the increase is small, I’m not saying it’s the main driver in the results reported). A link between cancer incidence and height has also been reported in the past. There may be several factor at play (higher exposure to growth hormone, higher caloric intake) but it is not unreasonable to think that cell count is one of them. For things like skin cancer, it’s hard to justify that size doesn’t matter.
  - vorotato 9y ago
    Yeah I had this thought too. It might be a gross oversimplification but uh it would make sense that someone who is 3 times as large may have 3 times the odds.... More research needed obviously.
stewbrew 9y ago
It doesn't directly lead to cancer, it increases, to some extent, the risk of some kinds of cancer, which can be influenced by life-style choices, to evolve. (The title says "linked" in the sense of being correlated.) That's pretty much common knowledge.

Google « obesity cancer », you’ll find many. It’s just that I thought it was common knowledge by now..

Because like smoking it’s obviously unnatural to eat like crap and sit on the computer/couch/car all day. If not obvious then not surprising. Obesity is the epitome and result ohf an unhealthy lifestyle of no exercise and eating junk food.

marindez 9y ago
Obesity is obviously unnatural and unhealthy and I still don't see how it is obviously linked to cancer.

flachsechs 9y ago

i'll go out on a limb and agree with you. it's not "obvious" that obesity is linked to cancer unless you view the world through hindsight-glasses. skinny athletic people get cancer too. it wasn't even "obvious" for most of the 20th century cigarettes gave you cancer. people have short memories. a contemporary example: is it "obvious" right now that sugar gives you cancer? because to a lot of people it is blindingly, astoundingly obvious, and to some that sounds like conspiracy theory nonsense. i don't understand this aversion to doing "obvious" science -- we have to do science to make things obvious, not the other way around.

jlebrech 9y ago

putting more unhealthy things into your mouth causes cancer, pretty obvious

shats 9y ago
it's actually quite easy to consume a caloric surplus with only "healthy" foods. beans, steak avocado, nuts are all examples of "healthy" foods with high nutrient density and high caloric density.
- jlebrech 9y ago
  I just noticed you slipped in steak https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/health/report-links-some-types-of-cancer-with-processed-or-red-meat.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/health/report-links-some-... If you overeat of a Standard American Diet you increase the risk of heart disease and cancer.

kgwgk 9y ago

Higher body mass means a larger amount of tissues which can develop cancer.

kgwgk 9y ago
I don’t know why the downvotes. Everything else being equal, more body tissues can only mean higher cancer incidence (even if the increase is small, I’m not saying it’s the main driver in the results reported). A link between cancer incidence and height has also been reported in the past. There may be several factor at play (higher exposure to growth hormone, higher caloric intake) but it is not unreasonable to think that cell count is one of them. For things like skin cancer, it’s hard to justify that size doesn’t matter.
- vorotato 9y ago
  Yeah I had this thought too. It might be a gross oversimplification but uh it would make sense that someone who is 3 times as large may have 3 times the odds.... More research needed obviously.

stewbrew 9y ago

It doesn't directly lead to cancer, it increases, to some extent, the risk of some kinds of cancer, which can be influenced by life-style choices, to evolve. (The title says "linked" in the sense of being correlated.) That's pretty much common knowledge.