Day 021 - 29 Jul 94 - Page 47
1 nutrient. As I say, the Doll and Peto is the best --
well, I have given it. They say that diet in total, that
2 the role of diet in cancer, I think, is of the order of
about 35 per cent per cent, and that has everything to do
3 with diet. It is not necessarily making any judgment on
what it is in diet that is responsible for, or at least it
4 makes a contribution towards the causation of cancer.
5 Q. OK. I will not carry on pressing you for a figure,
although I am not sure why you cannot answer. But looking
6 at page 1 of your statement you say: "While it is now
generally accepted that diet does play an important role
7 in the development of the so-called degenerative diseases,
which include coronary heart disease and some cancers, the
8 precise role of the different components in the diet are
very difficult to elucidate."
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. What type of cancers are you referring to there and what
dietary factors?
11 A. Well, the main ones I would have in mind there would
be cancer of the bowel and cancer of the breast in women.
12
Q. Right. What dietary factors in relation to those then?
13 A. Well, there would be a number, I think. First of all,
the total amount of concentration of fat; secondly, or
14 perhaps first of all, I should say cot, the total amount
of calories in the diet because it has been -----
15
MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have heard about that, the total calorie
16 intake?
A. OK, yes. Secondly, the concentration of fat in the
17 diet; thirdly, the amount of fibre in the diet and,
fourthly, the amount of concentration of antioxidants in
18 the diet.
19 MS. STEEL: That is things like vitamin C?
A. Yes, that would be one of them.
20
Q. Those are dietary factors that you think play an important
21 role in the development of cancer?
A. Again, with the provisos that I have made here, that
22 it is extremely difficult to pinpoint precisely the role
of diet and different dietary components in the
23 development of cancer, because you have different types of
cancers; you have got the initiation stage; you have the
24 promotion stage and, of course, above all, you have the
fact that there is (or there can be) a very long
25 time-scale between the introduction of a factor in the
diet and the manifestation of the disease. So that when
26 you are trying to work out relationships between dietary
components and a disease, such as cancer, where it can
27 take 20, 30, 40 years to develop, then I am sure you will
appreciate there are great difficulties in being able to
28 work out these relationships precisely, not to mention, of
course, that there are lots of other factors that can
29 complicate the matter.
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you are going through your notes, sit
down and read them.
