When you include the American Institute for Cancer Research in your estate plans, you make a major difference in the fight against cancer.

Corporate Champions who partner with the American Institute for Cancer Research stand at the forefront of the fight against cancer

40 Years of Progress: Transforming Cancer. Saving Lives.

The AICR Lifestyle & Cancer Symposium addresses the most current and consequential issues regarding diet, obesity, physical activity and cancer.

The Annual AICR Research Conference is the most authoritative source for information on diet, obesity, physical activity and cancer.

Cancer Update Program – unifying research on nutrition, physical activity and cancer.

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Whether you are a healthcare provider, a researcher, or just someone who wants to learn more about cancer prevention, we’re here to help.

Read real-life accounts of how AICR is changing lives through cancer prevention and survivorship.

We bring a detailed policy framework to our advocacy efforts, and provide lawmakers with the scientific evidence they need to achieve our objectives.

AICR champions research that increases understanding of the relationship between nutrition, lifestyle, and cancer.

Are you ready to make a difference? Join our team and help us advance research, improve cancer education and provide lifesaving resources.

AICR’s resources can help you navigate questions about nutrition and lifestyle, and empower you to advocate for your health.

April 5, 2012 | 3 minute read

Did You Know? AICR’s Health Policy Priorities

We’re in the middle of National Public Health Week, an effort to raise awareness about what we as a society need to do to live longer and healthier, so it’s a good time to highlight some key items on AICR’s public health agenda.

AICR funds research about how lifestyle influences cancer risk, and educates the public about those results. But our evidence-based Recommendations for Cancer Prevention are only the first step. We also commissioned an additional report to outline what needs to be done, and by whom, to effect the kind of societal changes that can promote a healthier population and reduce the number of cancer cases in the U.S.

That report, Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention offers recommendations to all levels of society — government, the food industry, schools, workplaces and more. That’s because our entire culture has contributed to the problem by creating an environment that promotes obesity, inactivity and nutrient-poor, calorie-rich diets, all of which make cancer more likely.

Our Policy Report is global but we produced an Executive Summary of our Policy Report for the US, which selects those recommendations most relevant to our current environment. Here is just a sample of them. (The full US Executive Summary is available here.)

GOVERNMENT

  • Restrict advertising of “fast food” and other high-calorie processed foods and sugary drinks to children under the age of 12.
  • Use regulation, pricing and other policies to make healthy foods and drinks more available and affordable.

INDUSTRY

  • Design communities and transportations networks that promote safe everyday activity such as walking and cycling.
  • [FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRY]: Make public health a more central priority; present food in appropriate portions and relatively low in added fats, refines starches, sugars, syrups and salt.

SCHOOLS

  • Provide healthy meals for all students and staff.
  • Incorporate physical activity throughout the school day.
  • Replace unhealthy foods in vending machines with healthier items.

HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Dietitians, physical activity experts and obesity specialists should work in an interdisciplinary manner to –improve public health, including cancer prevention, through food, nutrition, and physical activity.

WORKPLACES

  • Offer employees access to affordable and healthy food and drinks via vending machines and through snacks and meals served in workplace meetings and events

Here are two actions you can take today:

1. Send this AICR “Healthy Vending” e-card to a friend.

2. Sign up for AICR’s free e-publication Health at Work, which adapts AICR’s science-based, practical information to the workplace environment.

Which of these recommendations for policy change do you think are most important?

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