Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 58
1 we are not advocating low fat diets simply because of the
2 evidence of fat alone. We allow for the fact that there is
3 a significant relationship with fat. That is a general
4 consensus opinion when you look at all the cancers and
5 heart diseases and the like. But in addition to that, in
6 addition to this fat effect, or these other things going on
7 that tend to characterise those kind of diets, and so we
8 have to begin to look at the aggregate effect of fat and
9 all the other things to see what the main effect is.
10 I think that is a very important point. So there are
11 really two reasons for where we seem to have some
12 divergence of the opinion or at least some apparent
13 divergence of opinion.
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: You may derive some comfort from the rest of this
16 which I promised I would read and I will because it is
17 unfair not to. Have you got where it ends: "The quartile
18 group)." which is where I read to?
19 A. Yes.
20
21 Q. It goes on:
22
23 "These levels of exposure are considerably lower than those
24 experienced by Western women who were the subject of the
25 published cohort results. Our data strongly suggest that a
26 diet high in food sources rich in fibre, carotene and
27 Vitamin C within the range of exposure studied protects
28 against breast cancer. It has been suggested that
29 endogenous oestrogens excreted by the phial are more
30 readily metabolised and reabsorbed from the gut
31 (....Reading to the words...) Contains little or no fibre.
32 Thus, a woman on a low fibre diet would experience greater
33 exposure to endogenous oestrogen than a woman on a high
34 fibre diet. (Sharpe and Scatisbrek 1993) thereby possibly
35 resulting in a higher breast cancer risk. (Henderson and
36 others 1991)."
37
38 Vitamin C and carotene are antioxidants that have been
39 shown to protect against cancer in animals and humans
40 although information specific to breast cancer is
41 relatively scant" -- that is Hunter and Willett again.
42
43 "It is also possible that other ingredients present in
44 Chinese green vegetables are responsible for the observed
45 protective effect of this food group against breast cancer
46 development"
47
48 Do you have a comment about that last sentence, Professor
49 Campbell?
50 A. I quite agree, I am pleased to see that in this
51 discussion they were working towards the idea that there
52 are these other things that are also operative, but that
53 does not in any way exclude the general consensus of
54 opinion that fat itself also contributes to cancer of the
55 breast.
56
57 Q. I am interested to hear you say that there is a general
58 consensus of opinion. Do you mean to say that the
59 scientific community, at any rate in the United States,
60 believes that fat in the diet is a cause of breast cancer?
