Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 21
1 therefore, a high fat diet, if you will, is not so bad
2 after all.
3
4 There are two points to be made about those particular
5 analyses. First off, the fat that has been consumed is
6 basically plant juice, it is olive juice.
7
8 Q. Olive juice?
9 A. Olive juice. That is the way I characterise it. It is
10 virgin olive oil and so consuming fat in that form includes
11 a lot of very good factors without a doubt, present in the
12 plants first and, secondly, the oil that is actually
13 present in those plant juices is amongst the different
14 kinds of oils is probably the best. That is one point.
15
16 What we see in these countries is a slight reduction, a
17 significant reduction without a doubt, with some reduction
18 in heart disease and cancer rates compared to northern
19 Europe for example. However, when we compare these same
20 data with rural China, we get a rather different picture.
21 That is to say, in these southern European countries where
22 their intake of fat is traditionally high because of the
23 consumption of olive oil.
24
25 It turns out that these people consume plant material at
26 about the level that is similar to what we see in rural
27 China where fat intake is much lower. Interestingly, the
28 odd thing about this is that we would have therefore
29 expected heart disease and cancer rates in these
30 Mediterranean countries to be actually much lower than they
31 actually are so and it begs the question: Why are they so
32 high? Not nearly so high as northern Europe, for example,
33 the United States, but nonetheless, why are they as high as
34 they are?
35
36 So there is an alternative, at least hypothesis, to suggest
37 that the intake of even olive oil at these high levels
38 might have actually some adverse effects compared to what
39 it would otherwise be at lower intakes. In fact, there is
40 a major study now going on in Hawaii which has been
41 organised just to test this hypothesis. It is quite a
42 reasonable one.
43
44 I think that the bottom line for the practical consumer is
45 that I think amongst the fats and oils to be, let us say,
46 avoided, or that can be used, it would seem that these
47 mono-unsaturates that are present in olive oil are the best
48 choice but, nonetheless, to go that high does not
49 necessarily constitute good health across the board.
50
51 Q. Now, if we come along to the American Journal of Clinical
52 Nutrition article that was attached to your first
53 statement?
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will take a five minute break there.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
58
59 (Short Adjournment)
60
