Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 07
1 of good quality plant-based foods the lower the risk of
2 those diseases which are commonly found in western
3 countries; for example, cancers, cardiovascular diseases
4 and diabetes. He said that based on these and other data,
5 they hypothesise that 80 to 90 percent of all such diseases
6 could be prevented before the age of 90 years. That was
7 the China survey. Did I give the page number for that?
8 Anyway, it is all on page 16. I did mention that.
9
10 He mentioned on page 24, line 21 that the average fat
11 intake in China was about 14.5 percent of the calorific
12 intake.
13
14 Just on the point about the age of menarche. On page 19,
15 line 28 he said that breast cancer, although it was low in
16 China, was nevertheless greater with the consumption of the
17 typical western diet, high in animal based foods and fat,
18 low in plant based foods. (Pause).
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There has been the possibility of having a
21 two minute silence in certain courts. Without any
22 disrespect to those who suggest it, I propose to continue
23 with the hearing. Yes? You were page 19, line 28 - age of
24 menarche, though low in China.
25
26 MS. STEEL: Yes. Nonetheless was greater with consumption of
27 typical western diet high in animal based foods and fat and
28 low in plant based foods, which encourages body growth
29 rates to be too rapid and sexual maturation to occur too
30 early, which he then went on to say that there was a lot of
31 evidence that that was associated with a higher risk of
32 breast cancer later in life.
33
34 On page 20, he refers to the fact that the developing
35 countries should continue to use traditional plant based
36 diets and says that the optimum diet for people residing in
37 all countries of the world appears to be virtually the
38 same, and that the present dietary guidelines mostly
39 focused on the effects of dietary fat when reduced to 30
40 percent of the calories is not likely to yield to disease
41 prevention benefits originally inferred.
42
43 Obviously, that would go with our point that it should be
44 the lower end, the 15 or 20 percent of calories from fat,
45 that should be the figure that is being aimed for. Yes,
46 that is the maximum figure.
47
48 In relation to the diet as a whole, he said that there
49 appeared to be no threshold of plant food enrichment or
50 minimisation of fat intake beyond which further disease
51 prevention does not occur. Obviously, that is relevant to
52 the last point. And that the findings of the China study
53 suggest that small intakes of foods of animal origin were
54 associated with significant increases of plasma cholesterol
55 concentrations which in turn are associated with increases
56 in chronic degenerative disease mortality rates.
57
58 He goes on -- this is on page 22 -- to explain that the 30
59 percent of energy target levels that have been chosen as
60 recommendations have generally been based on estimates of
