Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 39
1 Professor Keen's statement?
2 A. Well, I agree with Professor Keen that there is a body
3 of evidence that does cast some suspicion on cows milk,
4 particularly, the proteins in cows milk, in the aetiology
5 of type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes. However, it does
6 appear that the exposure has to be early in life. It is
7 not known to be restricted to the first three to four
8 months. I do not think that is known.
9
10 Frankly, the only way of a child of that age could be
11 exposed to those proteins would be either through baby
12 formula or milk being fed directly to the child or if a
13 breast feeding mother consumes a milkshake or a dairy
14 product, and then the cows' milk proteins can leave the
15 digestive tract and can pass to the breast milk and can
16 reach the child.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is completely different to
19 what -- I had assumed that Professor Keen when he said
20 "the consumption of cows milk in the first three or four
21 months of neonatal life" meant by the neonate, not by the
22 mother of the neonate.
23 A. This is an early enough area of research that,
24 regrettably, there is lots of room for speculation and
25 relatively little solid conclusions regarding the link
26 between cows milk and type 1 diabetes. So, many of --
27 what is known is that children who are diabetic quite
28 often do have antibodies in their blood stream, antibodies
29 that can destroy the insulin producing cells. These same
30 antibodies appear to be caused by exposure to cows milk.
31 Some researchers have disputed that. I would have to say
32 the jury is still out on that. At this point it is
33 suspicion.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Unless you want to make a great thing of
36 this, I suggest you leave it because, whatever else is
37 said about Professor Keen, he is obviously a very
38 considerable expert in his field of diabetes. It was not
39 canvassed that it went anywhere beyond the strict terms in
40 which that sentence appears in his report.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I remember all we have said about you not
45 being criticised for not putting things, but if we are
46 going to go into what appears to be a new area, it has to
47 be raised. Quite frankly, I do not think it is a big
48 point for you. You want really to concentrate on the late
49 onset.
50
51 MR. MORRIS: Yes. (To the witness): So could you then talk
52 about dietary implications for what is known here as type
53 2 diabetes?
54 A. Certainly.
55
56 Q. Not insulin-dependent diabetes.
57 A. Yes. It is not controversial, and all authorities
58 would agree that obesity encourages, or obesity increases
59 the risk of non-insulin-dependent or type 2 diabetes.
60 High fat diets, for the reasons that I explained before
