Day 036 - 13 Oct 94 - Page 36


     
     1        the majority of them from plant products.  These
     2        cancer-blocking agents and suppressing agents have been
     3        identified in allium and cruciferous vegetables, legumes,
     4        grains, nuts, fruits and green tea.   Implicit in the
     5        chemical diversity and the spectrum of biological activity
     6        of these inhibitors is the recognition that they may play
     7        an important role in modulating the effect of diet in
     8        human cancer risk.  Changes in cancer risk in epidemiology
     9        studies are often correlated with a higher degree of
    10        confidence with  the intake of certain food groups (e.g.
    11        vegetables and fruits) rather than with the intake of a
    12        specific vitamin, mineral or chemical.  This caveat
    13        reinforces the difficulty of extrapolating information
    14        from an experimental design involving a purified diet
    15        which tends to magnify the effect  of a particular
    16        nutrient, e.g. fat, without considering the contribution
    17        of a  host of minor compounds with powerful
    18        anticarcinogenic  activity and which are  present normally
    19        as part of the human diet."
    20
    21        I read all of that because I thought it right to do so.
    22        Dr. Barnard.  Do you have any comment upon it?
    23        A.  Certainly.  His comments are interesting and
    24        appropriate.  First of all, a high-fibre/low-fat diet
    25        means a diet with considerably more plant material in it.
    26        So, to the extent that Beta-carotene or phytoestrogens
    27        oestrogens or other constituents of plant products may be
    28        protective, a high-fibre low-fat diet is more likely to
    29        provide them.  They do tend to go together as a package.
    30        That is why it is most responsible for people to say that
    31        in diets that are risky, one does not simply just say a
    32        high-fat diet alone, although that can be discussed, but a
    33        high-fat low-fibre diet will tend to be low in the types
    34        of micro-nutrients that he has described.  Soyabean, for
    35        example, which contains phytoestrogens also contains
    36        fibre.  A diet that contains soya is likely to have some
    37        of some fibre and phytoestrogens in it at the same time.
    38
    39        Also, regrettably, it has been argued, particularly by
    40        Dr. Burkitt, human beings are on a purified diet to a
    41        degree where there is a rather large amount of fat added
    42        to it and some natural constituents removed from it, and
    43        they are not on the diet to which they are best
    44        biologically adapted.
    45
    46   Q.   I am going to read you something Dr. Barnard:  "These
    47        arguments against fast foods use lack of balance to
    48        dramatise a point that will be seen instantly to be
    49        ludicrous if presented reasonable.  No one in their right
    50        mind would live exclusively on sausages or hamburgers or 
    51        meat pies or sweets or crisps", what you know as chips, 
    52        "but the arguments are present as if they would".  You 
    53        are not presenting an argument of that kind I hope, are
    54        you?
    55        A.  I am not suggesting that people exist only on
    56        hamburgers or something of that nature.  What I am
    57        suggesting is that the overall diet to the extent to which
    58        fat intake is increased or fibre intake is decreased, that
    59        diet is not as healthy, and that strong evidence suggests
    60        that certain cancers will be more common.

Prev Next Index