Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 18


     
     1        find a relationship, one did not find any relationship
     2        between dietary fibre and colon cancer, but all five of
     3        the other studies did find a relationship, an inverse
     4        relationship:   The more fibre in the diet the less the
     5        rate of colon cancer.
     6
     7        Two studies looked specifically at vegetables and both
     8        found an inverse relationship.  In the metabolic
     9        correlation studies and time-trend correlation studies,
    10        again the relationships for total fibre were inverse and
    11        for cereals were inverse; vegetables were not looked at in
    12        those and neither was high fibre/low fat diets in
    13        combination.
    14
    15        In all of these studies on this page there was no study
    16        that found that fibre increased the risk of colon cancer,
    17        and in virtually all the ones that examined the
    18        relationship a protective effect was found.
    19
    20        In the case-control studies, there are quite a number of
    21        studies here -----
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is only when we get to case-control
    24        studies that there is any study, and then only one, which
    25        appears to have looked at high fibre/low fat?
    26        A.  That is correct.
    27
    28   Q.   We do not have a column for high fibre/high fat at all, do
    29        we?
    30        A.  That is right.
    31
    32   MR. MORRIS:  Is a high fibre/high fat diet something that may
    33        be very small in number?
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Maybe because it would be such an unusual
    36        diet, but  -----
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:  Is that correct?
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is unfortunate for the enquiry we are
    41        carrying out that, since the comment which you have made
    42        in relation to fibre, to some extent anyway, depends upon
    43        the hypothesis that the more fat you have in your diet the
    44        less fibre, and the less fat you have in your diet the
    45        more fibre, we have only got one investigation which looks
    46        at high fibre/low fat?
    47        A.  That is right.  It is very, very unusual to find diets
    48        that are both low fat and low fibre or high fat and high
    49        fibre.  For the most part, these are inverse and the
    50        reason, of course, is that nearly all vegetables are 
    51        extremely low in fat and all vegetables, legumes, grains 
    52        and fruits contain fibre.  So, a diet that is rich in 
    53        vegetables, grains, legumes and fruits will be high in
    54        fibre and will be quite low in fat.
    55
    56        To put some numbers to this, as I mentioned yesterday:
    57        Beans are four per cent fat, at least most variety of
    58        beans; spinach is about seven per cent as a percentage of
    59        calories; broccoli is about eight; rice is one to five.
    60        All of these are quite high in fibre unless refining has

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