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
