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American Morning

New Report Explains Being Fat Makes You More Likely to Get Cancer

Aired July 11, 2002 - 08:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little health information right now. Most people realize being overweight is bad for your heart. But a new report out today explains that being fat also makes you more likely to get cancer.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now for today's house call.

They've hinted at this for years.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

ZAHN: Is this the definitive study that would show that link?

COHEN: Well, there's no such thing as a definitive study so, you know, who knows? But they won't be telling us that fat is OK.

ZAHN: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) every day.

COHEN: Right. But I think that the message they've been trying to give people is that bad diet is bad for your health. In other words, a diet of Twinkies all day is not a good thing. But what they're saying now is that it's not just the bad food that could be bad for you, it's also just having that fat on your body is a bad thing, that it can actually cause you or lead to cause you to get cancer.

Let's take a look at some of the statistics about obesity and cancer. This report from the American Institute of Cancer Research that is coming out today says that being obese makes you 25 to 33 percent more likely to get colon cancer, prostate cancer, endometrial cancer, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer and post-menopausal breast cancer.

Now, you might wonder, gee, why is it that being fat would make you more likely to get those? It's not necessarily an easy link to understand. It's not like heart disease where it's just because it's putting pressure on your heart.

What happens is that being heavy makes the amount of insulin in your body go up. That, then, the cells in your body, when they're getting a lot of insulin, it makes them divide more rapidly. You get more cell divisions. When you have more cell divisions, that means that there's more of a chance that one of those cell divisions is going to go wrong, there's going to be some genetic haywire thing and they're going to turn cancerous. And so that's one of the reasons why they believe that being obese makes you more likely to get cancer.

So basically the message is the same that we've been giving people for a long time, which is lose weight.

ZAHN: Well, that's the pretty obvious one. But what else are they suggesting to people, because that advice certainly has not worked over the years.

COHEN: No. No. As a matter of fact, we keep, the more they say it, the fatter we get.

ZAHN: We're getting fatter every day.

COHEN: Right. Exactly. So actually the American Institute of Cancer Research did come up with some specific things that they think people need to do.

First, they said that people need to eat a low fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans. Those foods have specific micro nutrients in there that seem to be cancer fighting.

Also, limit weight gain during adulthood to 11 pounds at the most. At least...

ZAHN: You're going to throw pregnancy out of that equation.

COHEN: Well, no, but that's -- you gain -- you lose that, hopefully, one would hope. Not necessarily, one would hope. Studies have shown that when you gain that much or less you're less likely to get cancer. Get one hour of modest exercise a day. That could be just taking a one hour walk. And get one hour of vigorous exercise a week.

Now, the exercise part is interesting. They recommend exercise not just because it can help keep you slim but because there's something about the exercise itself that helps speed the release of toxins from your body.

ZAHN: I want to come back to that graphic you had of the insulin.

COHEN: Yes.

ZAHN: Because now they're saying that, in part, is some of the reason. What about the fat itself?

COHEN: Yes?

ZAHN: Is there any causal information there?

COHEN: Fat itself is not good. Right. You can see here that being fat causes your insulin to go up and can cause cell divisions that go haywire. But even just the fat itself can trap carcinogens. This is especially important in colon cancer. That fat is sitting there and it can trap all those carcinogens you inhale from the environment, carcinogens you get from food and it sticks around because it's in the fat. If the fat weren't there, it might sort of take a hike. But the fat keeps it in there and keeps those carcinogens in your body.

ZAHN: I don't want you to view this as a disrespectful question, but one wonders the number of Americans who are now having lipo, if that eradicates the problem or if there's still some of those fat cells that are trapped in there.

COHEN: You know, it might, I suppose. I mean it would help you get rid of some of that fat. But I mean if you then go and regain that weight, which is what Americans tend to do, then it doesn't help you.

ZAHN: I'll tell you, in the last couple of weeks we've heard so many if not alarming, interesting things about diet that if it doesn't get our nation's attention, I don't what should.

COHEN: Well...

ZAHN: We had the president unleash his physical program where he did, what, seven minute a mile splits?

COHEN: Right.

ZAHN: Which was pretty impressive. We kicked that off. And then we have all these fat studies come out.

COHEN: And what I think is the most interesting part is something you alluded to earlier, which is that we know this. We've said this over and over again. Public health people have said this over and over again. But we still haven't figured out how to lose weight and keep it off. And the person who discovers that, it'll be like discovering the cure to cancer, really. I mean it will just be that person deserves a big Nobel Peace or something.

ZAHN: We're counting on you. You've done a documentary on just that, people who've had great success.

COHEN: Oh, no.

ZAHN: So let us know when you come up with your new theory.

COHEN: Let us hope. Yes. OK, I'll let you know. You'll be the first.

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