Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 68
1 I understand. What else?
2 A. When researchers have tried to reverse heart disease
3 in cardiac patients who already have demonstrable
4 atherosclerotic plaques in their coronaries, there is not
5 any evidence that you can do it by leaving fish in the
6 diet. They have removed all meats, all chicken, all
7 fish. Now someone may at some point do a study showing
8 that, in fact, fish can be included in such a diet and be
9 demonstrated to allow the reversal of atherosclerotic
10 plaques, but that has not been shown.
11
12 Q. What is troubling me is this, Dr. Barnard. This is a book
13 (and I take it you would agree with this at least) which
14 is intended to persuade its readers to improve their
15 health and to reduce the risks of various kinds of
16 illnesses and disease, is it not?
17 A. Yes.
18
19 Q. Then I ask you again, there is a considerable body of
20 research which postulates that the consumption of the
21 omega 3s to be found in fish are protective against
22 cancer, is there not? That is right, is it not?
23 A. There is a body of literature, experimental
24 literature, showing that to be so.
25
26 Q. I ask you again: Is that not an argument in favour of
27 eating fish?
28 A. That is an argument in favour of eating fish.
29
30 Q. Can we just look (because I promised you that we would) at
31 page 10. I will not read it out I think, page 10 of the
32 book which is your introductory chapter, as it were,
33 setting the scene which you have entitled, "Forever
34 young". On page 10, above the subheading, "Iron, the
35 double-edged sword", we see two paragraphs beginning after
36 the first paragraph on the page with the phrase, "Even
37 worse are fish oils which actively encourage the
38 production of free radicals". My Lord, I invite your
39 Lordship and the witness just to read that paragraph to
40 yourselves.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: I will come back to one particular sentence in it
45 in a moment.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: In the middle of that paragraph, Dr. Barnard, you
50 write this -- I hope you can find it -- it is before the
51 sentence about researchers from the University of Arizona
52 and Cornell, you write this: "They" these are the fishy
53 omega 3s "tend to decompose and in the process unleash
54 dangerous free radicals". Is that not just a piece of
55 scaremongering, Dr. Barnard?
56 A. No, it is not.
57
58 Q. Dr. Barnard, what are People for the Ethical Treatment of
59 Animals?
60 A. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an
