Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. At least that’s what the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) would have you believe in its report Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, on its website, the WHO actually cites cardiovascular-related disease as the number one global cause of death in middle- and high-income countries, and the second leading cause of death in low-income countries.
How does one explain this contradiction in statistics? ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan offers one answer: “The WCRF report is just an agenda driven piece that cites healthy eating, regular exercise and limited alcohol intake as methods that when implemented, they claim can prevent about 340,000 annual cancer cases in the U.S. It’s interesting that they highlight these lifestyle factors first, while only giving a mere mention to quitting smoking and avoiding excessive sun exposure as other preventive measures even though they are far more effective in actually reducing the incidence of cancer.”
Though ACSH is hardly opposed to the promotion of healthy lifestyle factors such as good diet and exercise, we do not think this will lead to 38 percent fewer breast cancer cases, 47 percent fewer annual cases of stomach cancer or a 45 percent decline in colon cancer, as the WCRF optimistically suggests.