Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 14
1 bulky this would somehow fill the stomach of the consumer
2 and he would be less inclined to eat more food.
3 Unfortunately, it does not work in that way so there is no
4 clear evidence that a high fibre diet does prevent obesity;
5 certainly, if one is talking about traditional high fibre
6 diets. For example, somebody who is a total vegetarian,
7 vegans, for example, I understand tend to have lower than
8 average energy intakes and they tend to be fairly slim,
9 obesity is not all that common amongst vegans, I think it
10 is simply because of the sheer volume of the food they are
11 consuming, but that is a very unusual example.
12
13 Q. The study that you were talking, the adding fibre to
14 people's diets, would that include the, sort of, throwing
15 on branflakes or adding bran to what people are eating?
16 A. No, one can modify one's diet without having to add
17 things to it. As you say, having cereal bran for breakfast
18 or something like that would be useful. The point about
19 bran and about fibre in the various claims that have been
20 made for it is that we are not talking about a dose related
21 bran, the more fibre you have the better. There is clearly
22 an upper limit beyond which additional fibre in the diet is
23 not perceived to have any great benefit and this is around
24 20 or so grams of what is now called "non-starch
25 polysaturates".
26
27 Q. Right?
28 A. My only reservation about fibre is in particular with
29 regard to growing children where high fibre diets might
30 well restrict energy intake and so restrict growth.
31
32 Q. We dealt with that yesterday?
33 A. Yes.
34
35 Q. The point I am asking you is, I have not read the study
36 that you are referring to, so I do not know whether when
37 you say, "they added fibre to their diet", they were
38 basically eating their normal diet but just adding extra
39 bran and things like that. I do not know whether you are
40 familiar with this book?
41 A. Yes, I am.
42
43 Q. Dietary Reference Values for Nutrients for the United
44 Kingdom and it is on page 63 of that book. It is just one
45 sentence which is 4.4.1.
46
47 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I do not have it. (Handed)
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Page 63?
50
51 MS. STEEL: Yes, paragraph 4.4.1. It is under "Appetites"?
52 A. Yes.
53
54 Q. And "Energy Intake" and it says:
55
56 "NSP rich foods are generally less energy dense, more bulky
57 and may induce greater .... than NSP free foods."
58
59 Would you agree with that?
60 A. Yes. This is a typical COMA comment. That means that
