Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. On behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society, I would like to thank you for inviting us to share with you our perspective on healthy living.
The Canadian Cancer Society is a community-based organization with 1,200 staff and 170,000 volunteers. We work in and support communities across the country at the local, provincial, and federal levels. And we fight cancer by doing everything we can to prevent cancer; by funding research to outsmart cancer; by empowering, informing, and supporting Canadians living with cancer; by advocating for public policies to improve the health of Canadians; and by rallying Canadians to get involved in the fight against cancer. We have been a leader in fighting cancer for almost 75 years.
Healthy living is a broad issue that includes a number of lifestyle factors impacting overall well-being and disease development. I'm going to focus my comments specifically on healthy body weights and physical activity, and my colleague will focus his comments on tobacco.
Currently in Canada, we know that 61% of adults and 26% of children are overweight or obese. In looking at the physical activity numbers, most recently, just in the last month, we found that 15% of adults and 7% of children are meeting the physical activity guidelines. Even more startling is that half the children are not even reaching five minutes a week of vigorous activity.
With regard to this impact on cancer, we know that up to 35% of all cancers can be prevented by being active, eating well, and maintaining a healthy body weight. That means in the year 2010 there were an estimated 60,000 Canadians diagnosed with cancer as a result of these lifestyle factors. More specifically, looking at two more common cancers, 45% of colorectal cancers diagnosed and 26% of colorectal cancer deaths are linked to these risk factors, and 38% of breast cancers diagnosed and 19% of breast cancer deaths are linked to these risk factors. After smoking, unhealthy body weight is the next largest risk factor for cancer development.
Obesity is a complex issue that encompasses social, economic, physiological, environmental, and political factors. It's not equally distributed across communities in Canada. Rather, it's more concentrated in communities that are economically, politically, and socially disadvantaged.
A strategy is needed with sustained political commitment and multisectoral collaboration. This cannot be done by a single organization, sector, or government alone. Policy actions can impact obesity in a number of ways. The first is by shaping the environment so that healthy choices are easy choices for Canadians. This can include food access, security and labelling, built environments for supporting physical activity, as well as tackling some of the broader socio-economic disparities. Second, they can directly influence behaviour. This can include public awareness so that individuals and communities know the magnitude of the problem and the solutions that can help combat it. And third is by supporting health services and clinical interventions for those who are already overweight or obese.