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How much do your daily habits - like diet and exercise - affect your risk for cancer? These choices are among the most important factors in a person's risk of cancer. Fortunately, they're within our own control.

For the majority of Americans who do not smoke, eating a healthful diet and being physically active are the most important ways to reduce cancer risk. Evidence suggests that one third of the 550,000 cancer deaths that occur in the United States each year are due to unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity.

Getting Moving
While it has long been an accepted fact that physical activity reduces one's risk of heart disease, it's still news that physical activity can also reduce the risk of cancer. Physical activity works in a variety of ways to reduce risk, including by helping control weight and by influencing hormones.

How much is enough? Adults should be moderately active for at least 30 minutes on five or more days per week. For reducing risk for breast cancer and colon cancer, even more exercise may be better. For kids, the recommendation is 60 minutes or more. The most important change in physical activity most of us can make, though, is to move from being sedentary to incorporating even a moderate degree of activity into our daily routine.

Controlling Weight Maintaining a healthy weight is important to reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of several cancers, including cancers of the breast (among women after age 50), and colon, endometrium, esophagus, and kidney cancers. Being overweight works in a variety of ways to increase cancer risk. These include mechanical ways in which abdominal obesity leads to acid reflux into the esophagus, and hormonal ways, in which obesity increases circulating levels of hormones such as estrogen and insulin that can stimulate cancer growth. Achieving an ideal weight need not be the first goal, though, as substantial benefits can come from first stopping weight gain, then beginning to achieve a modest amount of weight loss.

Eating Plants...Mostly
Vegetables and Fruits
Greater consumption of vegetables and fruits has been shown to lower risk of several cancers, including cancers of the lung, mouth, esophagus, stomach, and colon. Vegetables and fruits are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and many other substances, which together account for their beneficial effect. Because it is not known which of these components is most protective, the best advice is to get healthy nutrition from whole foods rather than from nutritional supplements. Eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruits each day, especially those with the most color, (a sign of high nutrient content).

Fat
High fat diets have been associated with an increased risk of cancers of the colon and prostate, but there is little or no association between high fat diets and breast cancer risk. Current evidence suggests that it might be the type of fat in the diet, rather than the total amount of fat, that is most important to consider. Limiting saturated fat may be particularly important to reduce risk for both cancer and heart disease. Choose lean meats and low-fat dairy products, and substitute vegetables oils (like canola and olive) for butter or lard.

Cancer risk reduction in our communities
Adopting a healthier lifestyle is easier for people who live, work, play, or go to school in an environment that supports healthy behaviors. Working together, communities can create the type of environment where healthy choices become easy choices. We all can contribute to those changes: Let's ask for healthier food choices at our workplace and where our children go to school. Let's support restaurants that serve healthy options. And let's help make our communities safer and more appealing places to walk, bike, and be active.

The Bottom Line
One third of all cancer deaths are related to diet and activity factors. That's equivalent to approximately 186,000 lives per year. Let's challenge ourselves to increase our physical activity, to lose some extra pounds, to make healthy food choices, and to look for ways to make our environments become healthier places to live.

Dr. Tim Byers is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he conducts research in the causes and prevention of cancer. He was a co-chair of the American Cancer Society Workgroup on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention.

Colleen Doyle is Director of Nutrition and Physical Activity for the American Cancer Society. She is a Registered Dietitian and has worked in the health promotion field for 15 years.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from the disease through research, education, advocacy, and service.

For cancer information or volunteer opportunities - or if you'd like to learn about how you can help prevent cancer with proper diet and exercise - call toll-free anytime, 1-800-ACS-2345, or visit www.cancer.org.

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