About our Recommendations

What are the Recommendations?

The Recommendations help people to reduce their risk of developing cancer.

They are based on the latest science available, and derive from the extensive evidence that was analysed for Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: a Global Perspective – the Third Expert Report from World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute of Cancer Research. Only evidence that strongly links a risk factor to cancer is used to make a recommendation.

We make 10 Recommendations, on weight, exercise, healthy diet, fast foods, meat, sugary drinks, alcohol, supplements, and breastfeeding, and for people with cancer.

Why do we make Recommendations?

The work of World Cancer Research Fund falls into two main parts. First, we want to find out what causes cancer, and how what we eat and drink, what we weigh and how active we are affect our risk of getting cancer.

But we also want to share the evidence with as many people as possible, to enable us all to make healthy choices in our daily lives to reduce our risk of cancer and other non-communicable diseases.

Our Recommendations are a straightforward way to share our cancer science globally. They can be used by individuals, families, health professionals, communities, policymakers and the media.

Will the Recommendations stop people getting cancer?

The Cancer Prevention Recommendations work together as an overall way of living healthily to prevent cancer. They provide a blueprint to beat cancer that people can trust, because they are based on evidence that has now proved consistent for decades.

A growing number of independent studies shows that the more closely people follow our Recommendations, the lower their risk of developing cancer.

Do people have to follow all the Recommendations?

To prevent cancer, people should aim to follow as many as possible of the Cancer Prevention Recommendations. However, any change that works towards meeting the goals set out in the Recommendations will go some way to reducing cancer risk.

The individual Recommendations form a package that, taken together, direct people towards healthy patterns of diet and physical activity. People do not eat foods in isolation but in combination, forming an overall diet.

Different components of the diet interact with one another, so the impact of one factor may be influenced by another. We are confident that following all the Recommendations offers more protection than following just one.

Are the Recommendations for everyone?

The vast majority of adults can follow our Recommendations to reduce their cancer risk. Specific groups of people, such as cancer survivors, need to consider our advice alongside guidance from their health professionals.

The Recommendations have been designed to be culturally relevant everywhere. We also provide guidance on some cancer risk factors that are specific to parts of the world.

Can people trust the Recommendations?

Our Recommendations are based on findings in the Global Cancer Update Programme – a rigorous systematic review of evidence relating diet, nutrition and physical activity to cancer, as well as an expert review of biological pathways (mechanisms) that could plausibly explain a causal link between the exposure and the risk of cancer.

Recommendations are made only when our panel of experts judges the evidence to be sufficiently strong. Our experts have also taken into account relevant dietary advice from authoritative international and national organisations.

Studies evaluating adherence to the Recommendations in the 2007 Second Expert Report have shown that the more closely people adhere to them, the greater the reductions in the risk of specific cancers, of cancer as a whole and of death from any cause.