Laura Makaroff, DO, on Diet and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention

In an interview with CancerNetwork®, Laura Makaroff, DO, American Cancer Society (ACS) senior vice president of Prevention and Early Detection, discussed updated guidelines published by ACS regarding recommendations on diet and physical activity for cancer prevention.

Published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the guidelines focus on staying at a healthy weight, staying active throughout life, adhering to a healthy eating pattern, and refraining from or reducing alcohol intake. Outside of smoking, the society suggested that these lifestyle habits are the most important that individuals can control and change to aid in lowering their risk of cancer.

“This update is our first update since 2012, and it really reflects sort of the totality of the scientific evidence on diet and physical activity for cancer prevention since then. And it’s really largely based on the work of several other major cancer organizations around the globe,” Makaroff said.

In addition to the update lifestyle habits, ACS address the implementation of public policy initiatives to support all individuals in adhering to these modifiable risk factors. Though individual choice plays a large role in this space, Makaroff indicated that many people also have barriers to enacting these habits and advocacy efforts are imperative in this space.

“What we really need is the individual choices balanced with policy and environmental [changes] that support those healthy choices,” explained Makaroff. “So, community action that breaks down barriers to allow equal opportunity for access to healthy foods, as well as access to safe and accessible opportunities for physical activity are really important.”

This segment comes from the CancerNetwork® portion of the MJH Life Sciences National Broadcast, airing daily on all MJH Life Sciences channels.

Reference:

Rock CL, Thomson C, Gansler T, et al. American Cancer Society Guideline for Diet and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention. CA Cancer J Clin. doi:10.3322/caac.21591.