Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 37
1
2 Q. Very low. Much, much lower than it would be in northern
3 Europe or in ---
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. -- America?
7 A. Right. In most places, it is almost non-existent.
8
9 Q. Alcohol is a substantial conveyor (if I may use that word)
10 of calories, is it not?
11 A. Yes.
12
13 Q. And it is a contributor, or may be a contributor, to body
14 weight, may it not?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. Is it to be found in any of the papers how you explain, as
18 it were, these differences, lifestyle differences, which
19 are not diet-related, as between the Chinese people that
20 you studied and people in northern Europe or in North
21 America; can we find a paper that explains how you
22 reconcile these lifestyle differences?
23 A. Yes, some of the papers do have that. There were
24 specific attempts made, for example, to compare non-dietary
25 factors with dietary factors, to see how they all come out,
26 if you will; and some papers have examined the influence of
27 viral infectivity; others papers included tobacco use.
28 Yes, we did, in fact, so far when we had the opportunity,
29 include some of these non-dietary things.
30
31 Q. I am just thinking, I notice in one of your writings --
32 I forget which one of the three it is that I have -- you
33 mention physical activity as being perhaps one of the
34 causes why the Chinese people are less fat than we are; and
35 at one point you suggest that may be because they rode
36 bicycles to work?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. These may all be quite important factors, may they not?
40 A. Yes. But there is a really interesting relationship
41 between the local exercise, the physical activity thing.
42 We were actually comparing in these studies Chinese office
43 workers, who are the least physically active, with
44 Westerners who are on average, whatever they are doing; and
45 so the physical activity component is much less significant
46 than you might otherwise imagine. We are not comparing
47 peasants working in the fields, for example.
48
49 Q. I notice -- I am sorry to interrupt you, but I am helping,
50 I think -- I notice that you produced a standardised
51 reference, male doing light work, office work?
52 A. Right.
53
54 Q. But did you attribute to him travelling to work by cycle?
55 A. No, we did not; and that is certainly a good point; and
56 I think that kind of exercise can contribute, yes.
57
58 Q. Or, what do they call it, the calisthenics in the People's
59 Park outside the office at six in the morning; did you take
60 that into account?
