Day 023 - 13 Sep 94 - Page 12
1 factors apart from diet?
2
3 MS. STEEL: I lost the bit about alcohol actually.
4 A. Alcohol has been implicated.
5
6 Q. In many studies?
7 A. Yes, in quite a few studies.
8
9 Q. As many as diet overall?
10 A. Well, one of the problems is that a lot of the studies
11 have looked at diet overall and, you know, they then
12 said: "Well, look, these people have fat, a high fat
13 intake", but they also have other factors. Fat is not
14 just the single factor they have looked at. So many of
15 them have looked at alcohol at the same time they have
16 looked at fat.
17
18 Q. Is alcohol something that is proposed as a cause of colon
19 cancer in particular?
20 A. The arguments surrounding alcohol and colon cancer are
21 as controversial and contradictory as the articles
22 surrounding fat and colon cancer.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I just -- then Ms. Steel will ask you
25 further questions, but what we have come to at the moment
26 is that with cancer of the colon there may be a genetic
27 cause which is sufficient in itself?
28 A. Yes.
29
30 Q. Whatever you drink or whatever your level of activity?
31 A. Yes.
32
33 Q. Apart from diet, level of activity has attracted attention
34 as a possible cause?
35 A. It has, yes.
36
37 Q. Within the diet fat has attracted attention; alcohol has
38 attracted attention; fruit and vegetables have attracted
39 attention as having -----
40 A. Protective.
41
42 Q. -- protective. That is where we have got to?
43 A. And fibre.
44
45 Q. And fibre.
46
47 MS. STEEL: There is an odd question. I do not know whether
48 it actually fits in here, but when you were referring to
49 limitations with population studies because they do not
50 take account of wastage, do you think -- were you trying
51 to suggest that if wastage was taken into account then
52 western developed countries would have a lower intake
53 than, say, what we call Third World countries or whatever?
54 A. No, I am not suggesting that. What I am suggesting is
55 that the intake of fat is not necessarily constant. There
56 may well be changes in fat intake in western countries
57 which are difficult to actually detect, because in the
58 most developed countries there is a lot of food wastage.
59 So that is one factor. There is some evidence, for
60 example, in the United States that fat intake has
