Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 15


     
     1        Also within country research I might mention Toniolo's
     2        study, which I described in my statement, which was done
     3        in Italy.  There were two groups who had very similar
     4        diets in relation to olive oil consumption and
     5        carbohydrate consumption.  However, when cancer patients
     6         -- the diets of cancer patients were examined, they had
     7        more meat, more cheese, more butter, more milk and more
     8        fat, and the risk of breast cancer was believed to be
     9        about three times that of other people; three times that
    10        for people who are consuming more animal products.
    11
    12        There are several other lines of research that are
    13        relevant in response to your question, though.  When one
    14        looks at people who already have cancer -- by that I mean
    15        cancer that has been diagnosed, so it has been initiated,
    16        it has been promoted; the cancer cell, the growth of the
    17        cancer has been promoted and it is progressing -- when one
    18        looks at these individuals, many research studies have
    19        shown that the more fat there is in their diet the more
    20        likely they are to have cancer aggressively growing and
    21        spreading.
    22
    23        Perhaps, in response to your earlier question, your Honour
    24         -- this is, I guess, another link -- when people have
    25        cancer, their prognosis is much worse if they are on high
    26        diets.  A researcher named Gregorio at the State
    27        University of New York in Buffalo quantified the link that
    28        for every thousand grammes of fat in the diet per month
    29        (this is simply total fat) the risk of death at any point
    30        in time for a woman with metastatic breast cancer (that is
    31        cancer which has already spread to another part of the
    32        body) increases by 40 per cent.  That is a very
    33        substantial rise.
    34
    35        An additional line of evidence linking fat and breast
    36        cancer is the fact that there is very clear cut evidence
    37        of mechanisms by which fat influences cancer risk.  Fat, a
    38        high fat diet and, I may say also, a diet that is low in
    39        fibre, because the two tend to vary inversely -- a diet
    40        that is high in fat is quite often a diet that is low in
    41        fibre, because animal products tend to be high in fat and
    42        contain no fibre -- a diet that is high in fat and low in
    43        fibre increases oestrogen levels in a woman's body.
    44        Oestrogen levels that are higher are clearly and
    45        unquestionably linked to a higher rate of breast cancer.
    46        The breast cells are responsive to oestrogens.  So, when a
    47        high fat diet elevates oestrogen levels, this is believed
    48        to be at least one important mechanism for increasing the
    49        risk of breast cancer.
    50 
    51        The National Cancer Institute in books on cancer states 
    52        that if fat intake were dropped from 40 per cent of 
    53        calories, or not -- let me correct myself; from the
    54        current American average, which is about 37, nearly 40,
    55        per cent of calories -- if it were dropped to 20 per cent,
    56        that could be expected to lead to a 17 per cent reduction
    57        in oestrogen levels, and that is believed to be at least
    58        one mechanism by which a low fat diet can be protective
    59        against breast cancer.
    60

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