I was a skinny little thing when I was growing up. Maybe it was because playing was more important to me than eating. I had five siblings and we were always chasing each other or our menagerie of pets through the house. That’s unless I was climbing trees, of course, which I did almost daily.

Then puberty came along when I was only about 11 years old. And the weight started accumulating insidiously on my previously gangly frame. Before I realized it, I was chubby. By the time I was 13, I had ample curves. Boys were looking at me in funny ways. I was often teased about being well-endowed for my age. It was so embarrassing.

As the years went by, more weight crept on. Crash and fad diets helped me lose some of the fat, but the lost pounds – and more – always returned eventually. I put on weight gradually, just a pound or two each year, not enough to raise a red flag. I more or less accepted that I had a more womanly figure than most. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was around 135 pounds, way too much for a petite frame.

Since then, I’ve learned that being overweight or obese is a contributing factor for cancer. Fat is BAD NEWS. Estradiol, the most dangerous form of estrogen, resides in fat cells, so fat is particularly bad for those with estrogen-dominant cancer. Most breast cancers are estrogen-positive. Thank God, I’ve shed more than 20 pounds in the last couple of years. I’m looking forward to losing another 10 pounds.

Fat people shouldn’t be treated like pariahs, but do you know that the American Institute for Cancer Research just reported a few days ago that obesity causes more than 100,000 incidents of cancer in the US every year?

The group, which funds research on the link between diet and the disease, said 49 percent of endrometrial cancers, which originate in the womb, and 35 percent of esophageal cancers are linked to excess body fat.

“It’s clearer than ever that obesity’s impact is felt before, during and after cancer, it increases risk, makes treatment more difficult and shortens survival,” said Laurence Kolonel of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.

Scientists have long seen a link between obesity and certain types of cancer, but the study — extrapolated from US cancer incidence data — is among the first to conclude the link exists on such a scale.

Researchers have yet to pin down the exact link between obesity and cancer, but some have suggested that fat tissue may produce heightened levels of sex hormones that spur cancer growth or that fat lowers immune function.

If the link is proven to be true, cancers could be expected to balloon in tandem with US body sizes. According to the government-backed Centers for Disease Control, 34 percent of American adults aged 20 and over are obese. Red alert!