Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 42


     
     1        A.  Right.
     2
     3   Q.   Perhaps we can look at that later.  Before I ask you
     4        another question about this paper and one other question
     5        about your chapter, do I understand your general thesis
     6        correctly -- I hope that I do -- it is this, that it is not
     7        futile but perhaps misdirected to spend a lot of time and
     8        money looking at individual dietary elements or ingredients
     9        either for prevention or for cause; rather, one should look
    10        at the whole diet and see what conclusions may be drawn?
    11        A.  We should do both.
    12
    13   Q.   Yes.
    14        A.  And, in actual fact, what has unfortunately been
    15        happening in this field too often is that people do look at
    16        individual things in great detail and then make no attempt
    17        to see how they interact and aggregate with each other, on
    18        the one hand; or you get some other folks who are looking
    19        at the big broad picture and taking little note of the
    20        details.
    21
    22   Q.   Of course one must do both, because hypotheses drawn from
    23        what one think of as an overview must be tested ---
    24        A.  Right.
    25
    26   Q.  -- must they not, to see if they can be validated?  Do
    27        I understand you to say this, that there is, in your view,
    28        a relationship between diet and the onset of these diseases
    29        which lies in the balance in the diet between animal
    30        products and plant products?
    31        A.  Yes.
    32
    33   Q.   But I do not understand you to say -- and you will correct
    34        me if I am wrong -- that you can with confidence say which,
    35        as it were (if either or both) is the influential or
    36        dominant consideration in that balance?
    37        A.  No, not quite.  We can say with considerable confidence
    38        which particular component of the diet is related to each
    39        kind of cancer or each kind of heart disease.  Often times
    40        it turns out that the component chiefly responsible for
    41        causing diseases in different tissues is probably or,
    42        rather, certainly rather different.  For example, the
    43        tissues that are bathed with oxygen, such as the lung
    44        tissue, obviously is more susceptible to the pro-oxidant
    45        activity; therefore, they are more prone to be prevented by
    46        antioxidant -- you know, that sort of thing, and the
    47        (inaudible) that has to do with the components most
    48        involved in that kind of physiology.  So, we can say with
    49        considerable confidence which part of the diet acts here
    50        and which parts acts there, in a sense.  I am not sure 
    51        where this ----- 
    52 
    53   Q.   I tell you where it takes one.  It takes one to page 1158S
    54        of your first paper.
    55        A.  Right.
    56
    57   Q.   I want to start with breast cancer, which is at the
    58        penultimate paragraph in the left-hand column, where you
    59        say:  "As already mentioned" -- have you got that?
    60        A.  Yes, I do.

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