Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 49


     
     1        appears - to their ingestion of their special bread or was
     2        it porridge?
     3        A.  The case is being made here that it was due to the
     4        fibre.
     5
     6   Q.   Yes, that may not be so, but it seems, on the face of the
     7        data --
     8        A.   Yes.
     9
    10   Q.   -- it appears to have been the ingestion of the fibrous
    11        bread?
    12        A.  That is correct.
    13
    14   Q.   That has accounted for the lower colon cancer rate?
    15        A.   Correct.
    16
    17   Q.   Do you know of anything almost 20 years on which suggests
    18        that in any sense this study was likely to have been
    19        flawed?
    20        A.  I do not think the study was necessarily flawed. I
    21        think the evidence that has happened since then, largely
    22        produced by Willett and others, is that there is a strong
    23        relationship between colon cancer and prostate cancer and
    24        dietary fats, particularly saturated fats, and I think that
    25        they emphasize, if I am correct in my recollection, meat as
    26        one of the sources of fat particularly with regard to
    27        prostate cancer as being incriminated.  And what this paper
    28        would suggest is that the reason for the low prevalence of
    29        cancer, this particular cancer in Finland, was associated
    30        with two things.
    31
    32        One is the low intake of meat, high intake of milk, which
    33        interestingly has apparently got some protective factors in
    34        it which are not present in meat and other animal
    35        products.  So I think what it does is to focus more on the
    36        meat and animal products if you take the contemporary
    37        evidence into account.  The converse, of course, is
    38        obviously true.  Sorry, if I interrupted you.
    39
    40   Q.   It is all right.
    41        A.  But the converse is obviously true that the fibre has
    42        always been considered as a protective agent so far as
    43        colon cancer is concerned as well.
    44
    45   Q.   Do you not agree then that we are on modern data, in which
    46        I think certainly I would include this if you would?
    47        A.   Yes.
    48
    49   Q.   We are arriving at a position that may suggest, and I am
    50        not searching for positives, that it is the antioxidant
    51        vegetable content of the diet which is important, at any
    52        rate in relation to colon cancer rather than the fat
    53        content?
    54        A.   I do not know that I would agree with that, my Lord.
    55        I think that the sum total of the evidence is that we are
    56        looking at, I hate to use the word, but it is the best way
    57        to look at it, a kind of holistic approach to these
    58        problems, that you get diets which are rich in saturated
    59        fats and low in the anti-oxidant protective agents and low
    60        in the dietary fibres that are protective again.

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