Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 07


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But that is under "international
     2        correlation", is it?
     3        A.  That is correct.
     4
     5   Q.   Does that mean, for instance, that in the within country
     6        correlation Enig in 1978 and Nomura in the same year did
     7        find a correlation according to the amount of vegetable
     8        fat?
     9        A.  Yes.
    10
    11   Q.   But Lea and Hislop in case-control studies found some
    12        factors -- there was a positive relationship and some an
    13        inverse relationship for different carriers of fat.  We
    14        can see the note.  I just want to make sure I have
    15        understood them.  I take the point about what "0" means.
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  Maybe if you do the within country correlations
    18        next and explain what that table finds?
    19        A.  Yes.  The reason, if I may say so first, that
    20        researchers do different kinds of correlations is that if
    21        one looks across different countries, it is possible that
    22        countries may differ in ways aside simply from diet.  If
    23        one looks within a country one has a much more homogeneous
    24        population, both genetically and environmentally, and it
    25        allows you to hone in and build a stronger case for
    26        causation, although the within country correlations are
    27        not, again, the only line of research that one would rely
    28        on, but they build in a separate way upon the
    29        international correlations.  They are used intentionally
    30        for that purpose to provide an additional and different
    31        type of data.
    32
    33        In the within country correlations we have, I believe,
    34        seven studies.  Four of the seven found a positive
    35        relationship with total fat intake.
    36
    37   Q.   Could I interrupt again?  Of the four that looked at -- is
    38        it correct to say that of the four that actually looked at
    39        total fat they all found a positive correlation?
    40        A.  Yes, that is right.  None of them found a negative or
    41         -- neither of them found an inverse or a neutral
    42        association, if I may say that.
    43
    44   Q.   So, because I am trying to clarify in my own mind that the
    45        blanks mean that they did not look at that?
    46        A.  That is correct.  There were no -----
    47
    48   Q.   It is not that they found nothing?
    49        A.  There were no studies that failed to find an
    50        association with total fat.  All four of the studies that 
    51        looked at total fat, indeed, did find a direct 
    52        correlation, which was precisely the same thing that had 
    53        happened in the international correlations.  Every time it
    54        was looked at indeed it was found, and found to be
    55        statistically significant.
    56
    57        Then when one gets into specific types and sources of fat,
    58        this is what the Surgeon General was mentioning earlier in
    59        the introductory paragraphs, saying that more work needs
    60        to be done on finding exactly which type of fat is the

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