Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 19
1
2 Q. With regard to obesity?
3 A. I do not know the answer to that, no.
4
5 Q. What about for heart disease? Do you have a figure for
6 heart disease?
7 A. No, I do not. Again, it is not my field, heart
8 disease, but that is a very complex area as well. But
9 there is not just one straight forward factor involved in
10 heart disease and I certainly would not be able to put a
11 figure on the proportion of calories from fat in terms of
12 risk and heart disease.
13
14 Q. You are well aware, are you not, that all the respected
15 health bodies make recommendations of below 30 or 35 per
16 cent of calories from fat as a general health
17 recommendation?
18 A. I agree. Many of them do, yes.
19
20 Q. Would you agree with that personally?
21 A. Yes. In fact, I think I have already said that in
22 terms of good physician advice, that is something which
23 people should try to aim at for a variety of reasons, as I
24 have already explained.
25
26 Q. Anything over that is considered excessive and it is
27 advisable to try and cut it out?
28 A. You are putting words into my mouth.
29
30 Q. I am asking you a question?
31 A. I am not sure that I can actually quantify "excess" in
32 these terms because, again, it is a spectrum, it is
33 something which is changing all the time, and there are
34 many complex factors involved in what one body's metabolism
35 can deal with in terms of fat and what another body's fat
36 can deal with, and what these organisations are trying to
37 do is to put out general advice for a population as a
38 whole, not on any one individual.
39
40 Q. The general advice for the population as a whole is that
41 over 30, 35 per cent is certainly considered an excessive
42 amount of fat in their diet?
43 A. No, I do not think they are saying it is necessarily
44 absolutely excessive. What they are saying is that one
45 should try to keep fat levels down because if you do not,
46 there is a danger that you might become obese and because
47 of the evidence that there is in the world literature
48 regarding heart disease, cancer and so on, it seems only
49 sensible to advise people to try to keep their fat intakes
50 down.
51
52 Q. It is excessive because you do not need that kind of level
53 of fat in your diet?
54 A. Well, I have not said it is excessive. I said I cannot
55 give you an answer about what is excessive or not. What
56 they are trying to recommend is that one should try to keep
57 down the number of calories derived from one energy source.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you have probably gone along that line
60 as far as you can. I understand the point of putting it
