Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 58
1 and background that are very helpful in understanding what
2 that literature may mean. That is not to say that someone
3 who devotes themselves for a very long period of time
4 could not make sense of it, I think they could ultimately,
5 but a medical background is very helpful and, I would say,
6 essential to some aspects of understanding the medical
7 literature as well planning research studies of the type
8 I have conducted.
9
10 Q. In order to further or improve our understanding of what
11 we read, you would no doubt encourage us to seek the help
12 of specialists in the various fields with which we are
13 concerned, would you not?
14 A. Just so I understand your question?
15
16 Q. You said you talk to experts in the field; we can do the
17 same; you would encourage us to do so, would you not?
18 A. Certainly.
19
20 Q. Much of your time if you are only doing psychiatry one day
21 a week or one morning a week, whatever it is, you tell us
22 is spent writing. It must have been quite a labour to
23 produce this book. Was it a labour, hard work?
24 A. I devoted a considerable amount of time reading the
25 literature, talking with the researchers, trying to put
26 their words into a useful way that might be of benefit to
27 the reader.
28
29 Q. This I say only for the transcript. It is called "Food
30 for Life", subtitled: "How the new four food groups can
31 save your life", with your name Neil Barnard MD on the
32 front, and the foreword by Dean Ornish whom you have
33 mentioned, MD, and the rest is by a lady called Jennifer
34 Rayman. Am I right it was published in 1993?
35 A. I believe that is right.
36
37 Q. Its thesis, may I call it that, Dr. Barnard, is that human
38 beings should disavow in their diet meat, yes? Is that
39 right?
40 A. The thesis of the book is that a healthful or the most
41 healthful type of diet is based on what I call the New
42 Four Food Groups. This is predicated on an American
43 concept of there being four group foods. However, the old
44 Four Food Groups which were set by the Department of
45 Agriculture in 1956, were meat, dairy products, grains and
46 vegetables and fruits had to share the final group.
47
48 The thesis of this book which was endorsed by Dr. Denis
49 Burkett, Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Oliver Alabaster and
50 Dr. Ornish whose name you mentioned, was that we would do
51 much better from the standpoint point of health if we
52 would base our diets on four new food groups, those being
53 grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits. Anything else in
54 the diet is an option. Options would include meat, dairy
55 products, added vegetable oils, alcohol, coffee, tea and
56 other sorts of things.
57
58 But the basis of the diet should be the New Four Food
59 Groups and there is, well, that is the thesis of the book.
60
