Excess Body Fat Linked to Increased Rates of Cancer

If you’ve been thinking about saying bye-bye to your abs over these next few winter months, and turning yourself into a Grade A slop jockey by justifying it with the “It’s my offseason statement”, you may want to reconsider your strategy. According to a new study released by the journal Lancet Oncology, overweight and obesity accounted the development of approximately 3.6% of new cancers cases worldwide. As body fat increases insulin resistance, or our body’s ability to proper regulate blood glucose levels, decreases. The inability to regulate blood glucose leads to a negative metabolic cascade that causes dangerous levels of advanced glycation end products to accumulate, along with increased produced of pro inflammatory cytokines that do untold amounts of damage throughout the body. Inflammation and elevated levels of AGE’s have been long linked to diseases such as cancer, CVD, hypertension, and type-2 diabetes. So although the idea of eating a quart of fat-free Ben & Jerry’s and calling it carb loading may sound appealing, the truth is that accumulating excessive amounts of body fat has far reaching implications that extend well beyond simply making life a bit more miserable come contest season.