Cancer Prevention Blog

Health professionals could provide lifestyle advice

The government recently received a report calling for GPs, nurses and other health professionals to do more to help people make lifestyle changes such as being more physically active or eating a healthier diet.

In line with WCRF’s Policy Report recommendations, NHS Future Forum calls for the promotion of healthy living to be a core part of the day-to-day business of NHS staff in a policy dubbed ‘make every contact count’.

Millions of people come into contact with health professionals … Continue Reading

Maya Monteiro, World Cancer Research Fund’s Senior Education Manager, attended the Nutrition and Health Conference in London last week as part of the expert panel. Here is her account of the event:

I was asked to sit on an expert panel at the Nutrition and Health Conference in London on Friday, alongside two nurses, a dietitian, a nutrition manager for Waitrose and the director of communications for the Food and Drink Federation.

We were there to discuss diet and lifestyle, and how we could make the kinds of changes needed to turn the UK’s health around.

Health professionals made up the majority … Continue Reading

Kate Mendoza speaks to the BBC about healthy lunchboxes

I was feeling quite nervous this morning as I arrived at Kingsmeade primary school in Hackney where the BBC was filming for its breakfast show – and where I was due to do my first live TV interview.

Although it was daunting, it was also fantastic to have the opportunity to talk to so many viewers about the importance of healthy school lunchboxes.

From our experience of … Continue Reading

Are you getting too much?

Today’s report that a third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines to be introduced next year, comes as no surprise to some.

Despite salt levels in bread having fallen by about a third in the past decade, the Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (CASH), who looked at nearly 300 loaves, still found levels to be unacceptably high.

Eating too much salt is not only linked to high blood pressure but, as reported in … Continue Reading

Is your weekend activity helping to reduce your cancer risk?

If you spent the bank holiday weekend gardening or doing DIY, you may not realise it but you were helping to reduce your cancer risk.

As well as helping to maintain a healthy weight, there is now strong evidence that physical activity itself can help to protect against a variety of cancers.

What counts as physical activity?

The key is to remember that anything that gets you moving will benefit your health. The more activity you … Continue Reading

Are we failing to see the truth?

Following today’s report, which proposes Governments get tough on obesity, we look at recent research, which suggests that a skewed perception of body weight may also be a barrier to effective weight loss.

Obesity-related illness

Recently published figures on obesity, physical activity and diet show that around a quarter of adults in England were obese in 2009 [1]. Today’s report suggests this figure is set to rise in the UK to 40% by 2030.

The … Continue Reading

Health professionals attended WCRF UK's Cancer Prevention Workshop

A very big ‘thank you’ to all the health professionals who joined us for our Cancer Prevention Workshop yesterday.

We thoroughly enjoyed it and had some great feedback, with participants calling it ‘a really excellent morning’ and ‘a brilliant session’.

It was a fantastic opportunity to talk about the work that we do and the evidence behind our message and it was great to … Continue Reading

Ethnic Minorities Cancer Awareness

South Asian women are less likely to develop breast cancer, Afro-Caribbean men are three times more likely than Europeans to develop prostate cancer, mouth cancer is more common among people from South Asia and liver cancer is a greater risk to Bangladeshi and Chinese communities.

These are just some of the examples which illustrate how, despite living side by side in the same country, different ethnic communities in the UK experience certain types of cancer at different levels.

There are a number of reasons why this … Continue Reading

WCRF has become a member of The Information Standard

As someone who often looks for health advice online, I know how difficult it can be to check whether the information available is accurate or not.

And I am not alone – surveys show that 75% of people find it hard to work out whether information is trustworthy or not.

So, when I first heard about The Information Standard, a certification scheme for health information providers supported by the Department of … Continue Reading

The growing problem of childhood obesity

Yesterday saw the start of National Childhood Obesity Week amid worrying signs that Britain still has a long way to go to get to grips with the health risks facing our children.

An announcement from the NHS’s Change4Life campaign and MEND, the organisation promoting healthy weight and fitness among adults and children, revealed that children are falling well short of the government’s recommended levels of daily exercise.

The study by the University of Worcester’s Institute of … Continue Reading