Usually when you’re talking about cancer, you think about someone who is at least middle-aged, and beyond. In other words, it’s practically synonymous with the Baby Boomer generation. But now, obesity-related cancers are becoming more prevalent among younger millennials — and the statistics aren’t looking good.
In fact, according to The Daily Beast, “[T]he risk of pancreatic, colorectal, endometrial and gallbladder cancers in millennials is significantly higher than the risk Baby Boomers were facing when they were the same age.”
Before you read any further, you first need to understand that “obesity” is defined by body mass index (BMI) classification. According to the BMI table, the overweight category has an index of 25 to 29.9. The obese category on the other hand, has an index of 30 or higher.
To compute for the BMI, your weight (in kilograms) is divided by the square of your height (in meters). In pounds, if you have a BMI of 30, you are about 30 pounds overweight. But if your BMI is 25 to 29.9, you’re still considered overweight.
And what that means when it comes to obesity-related diseases is that, no matter your age, you are still at risk for obesity-related cancers such as those mentioned in the featured article, but also for breast cancer. The fact is obesity is responsible for 40 percent of diagnosed cancerstoday.
When you consider that more than 20 percent of American adolescents are already in the obese category, it becomes imperative that you learn everything you can to stop this trend, beginning with the myth that “fat and fit” is OK.
Many still hold fast to the idea that you can be overweight and metabolically healthy, or “fat and fit,” but the cases in which this might be true are few and far in between. While this notion helps combat weight-related depression and poor self-esteem, it ignores the very real health risks associated with excess body weight.
Obesity can raise your risk of cancer in several ways. Some cancers, especially breast and endometrial cancer, are sensitive to the female sex hormone estrogen, and fat cells produce an excess of this hormone. This is also why obesity in young children is such a grave concern. By carrying excess weight (and excess estrogen) for many years, if not decades, they’re at a significantly heightened risk of cancer as adults.
Obesity is also associated with elevated inflammation levels in your body, which can contribute to cancer growth. One of the basic reasons why nutritional ketosis works so well against cancer is because it very effectively and efficiently lowers inflammation. A high-sugar diet, which tends to pack on the pounds, also feeds cancer by providing cancer cells with their preferred fuel.
A healthy high-fat diet, on the other hand, tends to discourage cancer growth, as cancer cells lack the metabolic flexibility to use ketones derived from fat as fuel.
It’s likely that obesity represents an indirect marker for the true cause of the problem that contributes to both obesity and cancer, namely insulin resistance, which is also associated with leptin resistance and activation of the mTOR pathway.
This emphasizes more than ever the importance of cutting carbs, processed foods and refined sugars from your diet right away — and, again, no matter your age, millennial or not.
The good news is that by eating the right foods and reducing the frequency of your eating, you not only will shed weight as a natural side effect of normalizing your metabolism, you’ll also reduce your risk of chronic disease, including cancer, to a significant degree.
If you already have cancer, the combination of a ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting can significantly improve your chances of recovery.