Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 23
1 I will start again. You said: "Finished with that and
2 talking only about diet, the animal studies say with
3 dietary factors, particularly fat and breast cancer, are
4 far more compelling than they are with inhaled tobacco,
5 and all the other lines of evidence that we have talked
6 about today have led to the point where certainly
7 somewhere by the mid-1980s the great majority of American
8 researchers were convinced that there were links, that the
9 links were of a causal nature, so much so that
10 recommendations should be made for the American public
11 specifically to reduce fat intake, but also to change
12 their diet in various other ways as well."
13
14 Dr. Barnard, I promised you that I would do this and I am
15 now going to start to do it, which is to have a look at
16 what various authorities, from 1982 onwards, have been
17 saying and to see whether what you are recorded there as
18 having said actually stands up to any kind of reasonable
19 scrutiny. May we start, please, with the earliest, which
20 is Diet, Nutrition and Cancer of 1982 published by the
21 National Academy Press. You are familiar with this?
22 A. Certainly.
23
24 Q. I think it was yesterday that this on page 5 of the
25 Executive Summary was read out: "The committee concluded
26 that of all the dietary components it studied, the
27 combined epidemiological and experimental evidence is most
28 suggestive for a causal relationship between fat intake
29 and the occurrence of cancer. Both epidemiological
30 studies and experiments in animals provide convincing
31 evidence that increasing the intake of total fat increases
32 the incidence of cancer at certain sites, particularly the
33 breast and colon, and, conversely, that the risk is lower
34 with lower intakes of fat. Data from studies in animals
35 suggest that when fat intake is low, polyunsaturated fats
36 are more effective than saturated fats in enhancing
37 tumorigenesis, whereas the data on humans do not permit a
38 clear distinction to be made between the effects of
39 different components of fat. In general, however, the
40 evidence from epidemiological and" ----
41 A. I am simply trying to find my copy of what you are
42 reading.
43
44 Q. I read the whole paragraph so as not to be accused of
45 being selective, but it is only the first sentence that
46 matters.
47
48 MS. STEEL: Have you a copy or not?
49
50 THE WITNESS: Could you let me know which page you are reading
51 from?
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: Borrow mine. Note, in particular, the first
54 sentence. I will highlight it.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like to look at the cover on the way
57 up, please. (Handed).
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: I will underline the words which you will, no
60 doubt, wish to draw attention to. Do you see I have
