Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 09
1 as well and the two are compared.
2
3 Here again, much the same pattern holds true. There are,
4 how many studies -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause there because I need some
7 assistance, Dr. Barnard, so think about what you want to
8 say next. Can you remember where you were or do you need
9 a prompt?
10 A. Yes, I think I can pick it up. Again, the Surgeon
11 General in his introductory paragraphs said that there are
12 inconsistencies in the data, but that there is evidence
13 that the relationships here may be causal. He described
14 that evidence as strong.
15
16 Under case-control studies there are 11 studies that have
17 looked at various aspects of fat; two in the left-hand
18 column under "total fat". There are two studies that
19 found a positive relationship between total fat and breast
20 cancer. There were four that found no relationship.
21 There were no studies that examined the relationships and
22 found it to be inverse. In other words, in no study was
23 there any protective value of fat, but in four they were
24 -- they specifically looked and were unable to identify
25 at least a statistically significant association.
26
27 However, three studies which are reported in the second
28 column looked specifically at animal fat. All three of
29 those studies found associations. Now, the footnotes here
30 may be helpful in describing exactly what they did find;
31 on the first of these, which makes a reference to letter
32 H, the specific association was for dairy products. In
33 the second of those there was a positive relationship
34 again for cheese and milk fat. However, yoghurt appeared
35 to be protective and there was no association for butter.
36
37 In the third of those references the study was positive
38 for gravy, beef and pork. However, fish appeared to be
39 protective in that study. So, of the three studies that
40 looked at types of animal fat all three found an
41 association, albeit with particular types of foods.
42
43 Moving to the next column, specifically looking at meat,
44 five studies examined the relationship. Two of them were
45 unable to find a statistically significant
46 relationship and three found a statistically significant
47 positive association, meaning a direct correlation between
48 meat consumption and breast cancer. Apparently, no
49 case-control studies have looked at eggs. However, one
50 did look at vegetable fat; again, vegetable fat was found
51 to be directly correlated with breast cancer.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Just to point out there, they have (d) which says
54 in the key: "Meat, milk and animal protein". Helen
55 points out that is probably a mistake because ----
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It would make total nonsense of the column
58 it is in.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: Yes. There is no (f) in the chart, so it probably
