Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 58


     
     1        we are not advocating low fat diets simply because of the
     2        evidence of fat alone.  We allow for the fact that there is
     3        a significant relationship with fat.  That is a general
     4        consensus opinion when you look at all the cancers and
     5        heart diseases and the like.  But in addition to that, in
     6        addition to this fat effect, or these other things going on
     7        that tend to characterise those kind of diets, and so we
     8        have to begin to look at the aggregate effect of fat and
     9        all the other things to see what the main effect is.
    10        I think that is a very important point.  So there are
    11        really two reasons for where we seem to have some
    12        divergence of the opinion or at least some apparent
    13        divergence of opinion.
    14
    15   MR. RAMPTON:  You may derive some comfort from the rest of this
    16        which I promised I would read and I will because it is
    17        unfair not to.  Have you got where it ends:  "The quartile
    18        group)." which is where I read to?
    19        A.  Yes.
    20
    21   Q.   It goes on:
    22
    23        "These levels of exposure are considerably lower than those
    24        experienced by Western women who were the subject of the
    25        published cohort results.  Our data strongly suggest that a
    26        diet high in food sources rich in fibre, carotene and
    27        Vitamin C within the range of exposure studied protects
    28        against breast cancer.  It has been suggested that
    29        endogenous oestrogens excreted by the phial are more
    30        readily metabolised and reabsorbed from the gut
    31        (....Reading to the words...) Contains little or no fibre.
    32        Thus, a woman on a low fibre diet would experience greater
    33        exposure to endogenous oestrogen than a woman on a high
    34        fibre diet. (Sharpe and Scatisbrek 1993) thereby possibly
    35        resulting in a higher breast cancer risk.  (Henderson and
    36        others 1991)."
    37
    38        Vitamin C and carotene are antioxidants that have been
    39        shown to protect against cancer in animals and humans
    40        although information specific to breast cancer is
    41        relatively scant" -- that is Hunter and Willett again.
    42
    43        "It is also possible that other ingredients present in
    44        Chinese green vegetables are responsible for the observed
    45        protective effect of this food group against breast cancer
    46        development"
    47
    48        Do you have a comment about that last sentence, Professor
    49        Campbell?
    50        A.  I quite agree, I am pleased to see that in this 
    51        discussion they were working towards the idea that there 
    52        are these other things that are also operative, but that 
    53        does not in any way exclude the general consensus of
    54        opinion that fat itself also contributes to cancer of the
    55        breast.
    56
    57   Q.   I am interested to hear you say that there is a general
    58        consensus of opinion.  Do you mean to say that the
    59        scientific community, at any rate in the United States,
    60        believes that fat in the diet is a cause of breast cancer?

Prev Next Index