Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 51


     
     1        A.  Yes.
     2
     3   Q.   Do you have to wait until -----
     4        A.  Clearly, one does have to wait until one has some
     5        basis for believing that the recommendations are likely to
     6        be helpful or unlikely to be harmful and deal with the
     7        subject which is important.  Clearly, the evidence linking
     8        a high fat diet with cancer, the evidence suggesting a
     9        causal link has long -- it has been a rather long time
    10        since that evidence has been there.  In effect, Dr.
    11        Wheelock earlier mentioned some of that.  It is well known
    12        that obesity, for example, increases the risk of breast
    13        cancer and worsens the prognosis when cancer occurs.  He
    14        says in the first and second pages that obesity is linked
    15        to high fat diets, if I have read him correctly,
    16        suggesting that he agrees with at least some portions of
    17        that causal link there, if not all of it.
    18
    19        So, I strongly agree with making recommendations known,
    20        weighing the evidence and helping people to modify their
    21        diets, even if there are some ambiguities about the
    22        mechanisms that are operating.
    23
    24        As I say, we have been long past the point where the links
    25        were identified, where those links were characterised
    26        quite convincingly as causal in nature.  Certainly, in the
    27        United States the link between diet and cancer of a causal
    28        nature has been accepted for quite a number of years.  In
    29        fact, the American government is committing quite a
    30        substantial amount of money to dispersing information
    31        about that to the American public.
    32
    33   Q.   If we can move on in your supplementary statement, the age
    34        of menarche regarding breast cancer, would you like to
    35        make some comment about that?
    36        A.  Yes.  It is well accepted (and I believe that the
    37        Plaintiffs perhaps may accept this as well) that the age
    38        of menarche plays a role in breast cancer; the earlier the
    39        age of menarche, the higher the risk of breast cancer.
    40        Dietary factors play a well known role in the age of
    41        menarche.  The World Health Organisation has noted the age
    42        of menarche going back, at least, to 1850, perhaps
    43        earlier, and reported on that in the literature.
    44
    45        As the fat content of the diet has increased and as the
    46        fibre content of the diet has decreased, the age of
    47        menarche has dropped in many western countries.  That is
    48        also true in Japan.  Since 1950 the fat content of the
    49        diet has doubled; the age of menarche has changed from an
    50        average of 15 in 1950 to 12 and a half today. 
    51 
    52        Now, the reference that I made to de Ridders article -- 
    53        I actually said "high fat diets" -- de Ridder in his
    54        introduction talks about the role of diets that are high
    55        in fat in menarche.  In his own study he concentrates on
    56        fibre intake, and he notes that those girls who grow up on
    57        high fat diets hit menarche later.
    58
    59        The mechanisms for this are not mysterious.  The body has
    60        a means of ridding itself of excess oestrogen, the female

Prev Next Index