he word ‘cancer’ is the one word people don’t want to hear. It has become so synonymous with death and suffering that it is seldom mentioned or even discussed – unless there is very good reason. This is despite the fact that there have been huge advances in the detection and cure of the disease in recent years.

What we all need to be focusing on is not the emotional aspect of cancer, but on its prevention. We should to heed the words of Professor Martin Wiseman of the World Cancer Research Fund who said: ’Cancer is not a fate, it is a matter of risk, and you can adjust those risks by the way you behave’.

The link between behavior and disease is too often forgotten or not recognized. The link between obesity, or being overweight, and cancer is well known. There are no fewer than six cancers that are linked to excess body fat. Despite this, the current obesity epidemic continues unabated.

It is a sobering fact that the ‘bill always has to be paid’. One element of the bill that will have to be paid for the current obesity epidemic is a rise in the number of weight related cancers that will surface in the coming years.

There is a very urgent need for all overweight and obese people to lose weight if they are to reduce the likelihood of developing cancer, but what to do? Diets do not deliver permanent weight loss, they deliver short-term weight loss. Most overweight or obese people are caught in a never ending cycle of diets which do nothing to reduce their weight permanently and make them miserable in the process.

Here is a way forward, it’s called ‘The Slim Habit’. It’s a simple solution to a problem no diet has been able to solve.