Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 56
1 A. Yes. People tend to want to maintain a relatively
2 constant fat intake. It has also been shown for salt that
3 people want to maintain the same sort of salt intake on a
4 continuing basis.
5
6 Q. Are you saying that is a psychological thing rather than a
7 physical thing?
8 A. There is clearly a psychological component which
9 I mention in one of my references on actually the last
10 page before the references. Birch 1992 did describe in
11 some detail some of the psychological aspects of it using
12 a conditioning model. However, whether they are physical
13 aspects, it simply is not known.
14
15 Q. I did jump out of order there. The point we have not
16 really brought out, you say diabetes contributes to heart
17 disease?
18 A. It is a well-known contributor to heart disease. It
19 makes atherosclerosis much more aggressive.
20
21 Q. Moving on to page 4, confounding variables in studies, is
22 that always a problem?
23 A. It is always something that researchers want to pay
24 attention to. For example, in studies I mentioned earlier
25 of Adventists or of vegetarians, if I had group of
26 vegetarians that had very low cancer rates but they also
27 never smoked, and I tried to compare them with a group of
28 people that were not vegetarians, not following a healthy
29 diet but also smoked, it would be very difficult to sort
30 out the variables there. So, it is something that all
31 researchers pay attention.
32
33 The study of Adventists were done in that population
34 specifically because confounding variables can be
35 minimised or even eliminated, because virtually all
36 Adventists avoid tobacco; virtually all of them avoid
37 alcohol and caffeine but half are vegetarians are half are
38 not roughly speaking. So that allows the confounding
39 variables to be controlled. When case controlled studies
40 are done, similarly, the confounders are something which
41 is given very high priority.
42
43 Q. Moving on to page 5 -----
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There are a couple of matters on page 4
46 I would like some expansion on. When you say in the
47 middle paragraph: "The high-fat foods served at
48 McDonald's contribute to obesity", what do you mean by
49 that?
50 A. That a high fat intake, irrespective of calorie
51 intake, encourages obesity.
52
53 Q. Can I relate that to what you say in the next paragraph?
54 What are you suggesting there? I mean, on one reading of
55 it it might be interpreted that you were saying that since
56 there is no established threshold below which the
57 consumption of foods which you describe is known to be
58 safe, but eating one McDonald's meal might be a risk to
59 your health; is that what you are saying?
60 A. No. No, your Honour, that is not what I was intending
