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According to a British study, being overweight would amplify the harmful effects of alcohol on the risk of cancer, in particular in people with a high percentage of body fat.
Alcohol and cancer don’t mix, that’s a fact. Alcoholic beverages are responsible for 11% of cancers in men and 4.5% of cancers in women. Recently, Australian researchers tried to find out more about the effects of alcohol on cancer. They studied another risk factor: being overweight. They found that overweight people who consumed alcohol were at much higher risk of cancer.
Occasional drinkers: + 53% risk of cancer
In their work, the authors looked at the body fat percentage, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI) and alcohol consumption of 399,575 people aged 40 to 69 – who were not suffering from cancer.
The volunteers were then observed for nearly 12 years, thanks to a cohort from the UK Biobank. Result: over an average follow-up of 12 years, during which 17,617 participants were diagnosed with alcohol-related cancer and 20,214 developed obesity-related cancer.
Scientists found that people with a high body fat percentage who drank more than the norm (meaning more than recommended by health authorities) were at higher risk of cancer.
They also found that overweight people who drank in moderation had a 53% higher risk of developing drink-related cancer – compared to those who did not drink.
Finally, on the side of obese people who consumed alcohol beyond the recommended limits, the cancer risk rose to + 61%.
“Our results suggest that obese people, especially those with excess body fat, need to be more aware of the risks associated with alcohol consumption. Further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying this joint effect of alcohol consumption and obesity on cancer risk.“, said Dr. Inan-Eroglu.
Even without alcohol, a large waistline is associated with a higher risk of cancer, say scientists.
To prevent the disease, scientists recommend reducing or even stopping the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
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What role does alcohol play in weight gain?
Alcohol is an extremely high calorie drink. It makes you gain weight for several reasons:
- it stimulates the appetite (alcohol upsets the production of hormones involved in appetite regulation);
- it provides a large amount of energy, but provides very little or no nutrients.
- it cannot be stored in the body and must be quickly assimilated (fat is often stored in the abdomen).
As a reminder, reasonable consumption corresponds to less than 14 glasses of an alcoholic drink per week for women (2 glasses per day on average) and 21 glasses for men (3 glasses per day on average) according to the World Health Organization health. 23.6% of people aged 18-75 nevertheless exceed the consumption benchmarks (2017 figures).