Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 49
1 Q. You may wish to know that was 1985, that document was
2 produced.
3 A. Yes.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there anything there you would take
6 exception to, Dr. Barnard?
7 A. Not on the -- not in so far as I have read it so far,
8 no.
9
10 Q. It is just the left-hand column on that page.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: The last document I want to refer you to is the
13 document No. 1 on the Miscellaneous Supplementary List.
14 A. Yes, the World Health Organisation?
15
16 Q. Yes. The Executive Summary. Do you have a copy of the
17 Executive Summary?
18 A. No, I do not.
19
20 Q. It might help just to have it. I believe this will be the
21 last document we will refer to. There will be a couple of
22 questions to follow. (Handed). I will try to be as brief
23 as possible. The section I am interested in is the
24 introductory section. We have already had in great detail
25 chunks of the full report. This is the Executive Summary
26 of that report, yes?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. The 1990 Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic
30 Diseases, World Health Organisation. Just in the
31 introductory summary, if I may refer you to the first
32 paragraph, just the last sentence on the first paragraph:
33 "Anthropological studies show that the diet which fueled
34 most of human evolution was low in fat, very low in sugar,
35 and high in fibre and other complex carbohydrates". Have
36 you made any such studies or research, whether you would
37 agree with that view?
38 A. I agree with that view and published some rather
39 detailed elaborations on that view in my first book on
40 nutrition which we described yesterday.
41
42 Q. If we go down to the third paragraph -- I think we have
43 dealt with that. I will leave that. The fourth
44 paragraph, the last sentence in the fourth paragraph -- I
45 had better read the whole paragraph: "One consequence of
46 the very intensity of this research - and the publicity it
47 often receives - has been a tendency to focus attention on
48 individual food items or often has been tendency to focus
49 attention on individual food items or nutrients, with the
50 result that consumers frequently lose sight of the need
51 for balance in their diets. The problem is compounded by
52 the fact that the concept of the balanced diet, though
53 still extremely important, was introduced to protect
54 populations from the diseases of nutrient deficiency, and
55 may require adjustment in the light of growing evidence
56 that nutrient excesses can also cause disease". What does
57 that sentence mean to you?
58 A. It is true that in the early stages of nutritional
59 science -- by that I mean prior to the advent of this
60 century -- attention particularly focused on making sure
