Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 13


     
     1        of Health in its surveys of children and adults one sees
     2        that as a young man goes from the age of 18 into his early
     3        20s there a sudden increase in body weight and this is very
     4        clearly the result of consuming alcohol.  So weight gain
     5        can be quite rapid over a fairly short period of years.
     6        But for most people it is an insidious process going
     7        through overweight and ultimately becoming obesity.
     8
     9   Q.   OK.
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   Just a couple of questions.  On page 11 of your
    12        statement, where you talk about fibre and cardio-vascular
    13        disease, is basically what you are saying there that
    14        fibre-rich foods such as fruit, vegetable and cereals have
    15        a beneficial effect in terms of cardio-vascular disease,
    16        but it is not known whether or not it is the fibre or the
    17        vitamins that are in them that are providing the beneficial
    18        effect?
    19        A.  Yes, I think it is rather good that we are now
    20        beginning to think about foods rather than individual
    21        nutrients like fat or sugar or salt, and so on.  If one is
    22        talking about diets as a whole, a diet that is high in
    23        fruits and vegetables appears to be protective, if one is
    24        looking at it statistically, protective against heart
    25        disease, but again what one is saying there is that the
    26        diet which is high in fruit and vegetables and cereals,
    27        which are a major source of the fibre, is likely to be a
    28        diet that is low in fat because that takes up a substantial
    29        proportion of the energy so there is a reduced amount left
    30        being made up by fat and this is characteristic of diets
    31        that are high in cereals, fruit and vegetables.
    32
    33        But the problem is what are we really talking about in
    34        terms of protection?  Is it soluble fibre or insoluble
    35        fibre, is it antioxidant fibre or minerals, or a reduced
    36        fat intake or the nature of the fat, we simply cannot put
    37        our finger on it and say 'this is the cause of
    38        cardiovascular disease or the protection against
    39        cardio-vascular disease'.  So we are talking about food and
    40        diets which, in my opinion, is much more useful.
    41
    42   Q.   Right.  And the foods and diet recommendations are eating
    43        more cereals, fruits, nuts, vegetables and seeds and less
    44        things containing saturated fats?
    45        A.  That is the current recommendation, yes.
    46
    47   Q.   Right.  That is the recommendation to reduce the incidence
    48        of heart disease, cardio-vascular disease, and so on, all
    49        the ones we have been talking about?
    50        A.  Yes, yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.   Right.  Is it also the case that in terms of fibre a diet 
    53        that is high in fibre will be less likely to lead to
    54        obesity?
    55        A.  Well, this has seemed to be an idea that some people
    56        explored a few years ago, but experimentally in dealing
    57        with patients with obesity, or even simply overweight,
    58        patients' introduction of more fibre into the diet has
    59        unfortunately not been very successful.  I think the simple
    60        reason is that there was the concept that because fibre is

Prev Next Index