Day 023 - 13 Sep 94 - Page 16


     
     1        A.  It does not mean more than that.
     2
     3   Q.   There was some kind of distortion, whether in an objective
     4        sense it was for the better or the worse, it was some
     5        distortion of what their normal diet would have been?
     6        A.  Yes.
     7
     8   Q.   Does it mean more than that?
     9        A.  I do not think so.  The point about the article is
    10        that they are suggesting that the body may be particularly
    11        susceptible to certain changes at that particular time;
    12        just as when we are looking at other factors involved in
    13        breast cancer, having a child has a significant influence
    14        on the female body of a hormonal nature.  These are just
    15        events which are occurring throughout a lifetime of a
    16        woman which have an influence on the development of breast
    17        cancer.
    18
    19   Q.   So what they are considering is not that it is a purely
    20        hormonal cause rather than one which may itself have been
    21        caused by a change in diet rather than the actual intake
    22        of food directly leading to ----
    23        A.  I think what they are saying is that the reduced
    24        intake of food is perhaps delaying the menarche.  It is
    25        also delaying the development of the person themselves, so
    26        that the overall physical stature of the person has
    27        changed.  We come back to body mass, as it were, as being
    28        a factor in the development of breast cancer.  We have
    29        talked about obesity before.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:   Could we have the five-minute break now?
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, we will have our break now.
    34
    35                       (Short Adjournment)
    36
    37   MR. MORRIS:  Just a final few points:  We have managed to find
    38        the World Health Organisation Report and the conclusions
    39        of it.  There is a copy for you here.
    40        (Handed to the witness)  Page 157 is the conclusions of
    41        the report. For the record, it is the World Health
    42        Organisation (technical report series 797), 1990, Study
    43        Group on Diet, Nutrition and Prevention of Noncommunicable
    44        Diseases or chronic diseases -- I am not sure which.  Have
    45        you got 157?
    46
    47        I will just read this out:  "Dietary factors are now known
    48        to influence the development of a wide range of chronic
    49        diseases, e.g., coronary heart disease, various cancers,
    50        hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, and diabetes. 
    51        These conditions are the commonest cause of premature 
    52        death in developed countries and they impose major burdens 
    53        on society.  On current projections, cardiovascular
    54        diseases and cancer will emerge, or be established, as
    55        substantial health problems in virtually every country in
    56        the world by the year 2000."
    57
    58        Do they mean there that the dietary factors are being
    59        exported to or developing in countries where they are not
    60        a problem, or not much of a problem at the moment.  Is

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