A quarter of cancers could be prevented by 2025 through diet and exercise alone, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in the cost of treatment, the Medical Journal of Australia has found. Taking data on projected illness, and coupling it with published findings on the association between food, nutrition and physical activity in the prevention of cancer, the journal's study found that the incidence of cancer in Australia will rise to 170,000 in the next 13 years, an increase of 60 per cent since 2007. Intervention to improve health and environmental factors could reduce that by 43,000, or 25 per cent, it says in a report to be published Saturday. Contributing factors in the nation's poor health include an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, the increasing prevalence of overweight and obese adults, climbing rates of harmful alcohol consumption, and an unbalanced diet. Pip Youl, one of the report's authors and head of research at Cancer Council Queensland, said that less than 10 per cent of Australians ate the recommended five serves of vegetables a day and only 6 per cent ate two or more serves of fruit a day. “Ways to encourage better eating are things like improving the number of wholegrain cereals and bread, choosing foods that are low in salt, choosing a low-fat diet, particularly diets that are low in saturated fats,'' she said. ‘'One of the key things is teaching children to eat healthily. So, getting them interested in cooking and eating healthy foods will give them a really good start in life and enjoying a healthy life.'' __
