Day 252 - 20 May 96 - Page 17
1 tends to impose an extreme change in the diet, a diet
2 devoid of a nutrient or a diet containing an amount of the
3 nutrient which is far more than normal people would ever
4 consume. And the purpose of this is, hopefully, to achieve
5 a level of significance 0.05 and to be able to publish it.
6
7 Now, if one uses much more natural conditions in order to
8 show an effect one would have to use many, many more
9 subjects and that would cost an awful lot of money. So
10 that is why we end up with a paper like this where people
11 are given 120 grammes of fat in one meal, which is totally
12 unnatural.
13
14 Q. Then, finally, putting Professor Miller and his work on one
15 side, Professor Naismith, are there, in any event, quite
16 good, well-tested reasons not to eat an habitually high fat
17 diet?
18 A. Yes. I think there is a lot of evidence suggesting
19 that a high fat diet may be associated with the development
20 of cardiovascular disease.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just take this slowly.
23 A. Yes.
24
25 Q. Can you just wait until I give you a green light to carry
26 on, Professor?
27 A. I am sorry, yes.
28
29 Q. Yes.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: What you said was, I asked you whether there were
32 not, in any event, quite good reason to avoid an habitually
33 high fat diet and you said this, and I will read it to you:
34 "Yes, I think there is a lot of evidence suggesting that
35 a high fat diet might be associated with the development of
36 cardiovascular disease?
37 A. Yes, I would then have to qualify that by saying that
38 it is very much the nature of a high fat diet that
39 matters. Examples of all of this is appropriate in
40 relation to this case, to mention it, but one can think of
41 examples where communities have very high fat intakes and
42 do not have the experience of cardiovascular disease that
43 British people have, and their explanation is that we are
44 not looking at a quantitative effect but we are looking at
45 an effect of the quality of the dietary fat.
46
47 Q. One thing arising out of that, I expect everybody else has
48 and I know that you must have done, Professor Naismith, I
49 have studied tables in that grey book about cardiovascular
50 disease?
51 A. Yes.
52
53 Q. One thing one notices, for example, is that the French
54 consume significantly more quantities of so-called wicked
55 substances like butter, cheese, meat and so on than we do,
56 and yet their mortality rate from heart disease is
57 something like between a quarter and a third of ours. Have
58 you noticed that?
59 A. Yes, I have.
60
