Day 252 - 20 May 96 - Page 30


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Just let me read that.  So, your
     2        interpretation is that what appears in the table is a
     3        fasting level?
     4        A.  Yes.
     5
     6   Q.   That is not after a meal nor after the fatty milkshake?
     7        A.   No.
     8
     9   Q.   And what appears underneath the table is an account of the
    10        differences?
    11        A.   The chains.
    12
    13   Q.   After the fatty milkshake?
    14        A.   Yes, yes.
    15
    16   Q.   So whatever one says about the table what the authors are
    17        trying to point to is a certain propensity after a fatty
    18        milkshake which is present in the people on the high fat
    19        diet but not present to the same extent in the people on
    20        the so-called healthy diet?
    21        A.   Yes, yes.  My reaction to the study, I may say, is one
    22        of surprise because if one were consuming a high fat diet
    23        for a period of a month then one's body is adapted to
    24        metabolising fat.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Well, that would explain the first sentence
    27        in the second paragraph of Dr Miller's letter.  "The
    28        results of our study demonstrated that after abiding to a
    29        high fat diet for a one month period the body's ability to
    30        clear blood fats" -- after which I would insert in
    31        parentheses -- "(blood fats as a result of the milkshake
    32        fat load) was significantly impaired compared to the low
    33        fat phase"?
    34        A.  Yes.
    35
    36   Q.   That is what you say is your interpretation?
    37        A.   Yes.  What I was saying about that, your Lordship, is
    38        that I find the results surprising because somebody who had
    39        been consuming a high fat diet over a period of a month
    40        would be adapted to metabolising fat.  Somebody on a lower
    41        fat diet would have a reduced ability.  Therefore, I would
    42        have imagined that being given a high fat load they would
    43        have done rather better in disposing of it than if they
    44        were unaccustomed to it.  That is what I would have
    45        expected if I had put up a hypothesis myself and tried to
    46        test it in this way.
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:  But presumably the reason that the fat consumption
    49        has been causally linked to heart disease is precisely
    50        because the body is unable to cope with the high levels of 
    51        fat in the bloodstream? 
    52        A.   Well, I would not-- 
    53
    54   Q.   That is why they get heart disease?
    55        A.   Well, I think one can talk generally about fats.  I
    56        mean, Dr Miller does talk about fats.  This is much too
    57        loose a terminology.  What you are saying is correct to
    58        some extent.  I would not say the body is unable to cope,
    59        the body deals with it in a different way, the result of
    60        which is that on a high fat diet of a particular

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