§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he has obtained a copy of the report of the United States National Research Council on the link between the consumption of fatty foods and milk products and the incidence of cancer; and to what extent these findings coincide with United Kingdom health research;
(2) if medical research in the United Kingdom has shown any link between the consumption of saturated and unsaturated fats and the incidence of cancer; and if he will make a statement
§ Mr. William Shelton[pursuant to his reply, 28 June 1982, c. 226.]: I assume that my hon. Friend is referring to the recent report by the United States National Academy of Science's Committee of diet, nutrition and cancer. This report was compiled from world-wide published data, including results of work carried out at the Medical Research Council's Dunn nutrition unit; a member of the staff of that unit also gave evidence to the committee.
On the basis of findings from both epidemiological studies and animal experiments, I understand that the report concluded that there was a possible causal relationship between total fat intake and the incidence of certain forms of cancer. In the case of animals, where total fat intake was kept to low levels, the report stated that there seemed to be evidence for attributing a greater incidence of tumours to the consumption of polyunsaturated fats rather than of saturated fats; the data on humans did not permit a clear distinction to be made between the effects of the different components of fat. There are at present no additional United Kingdom research results which would shed further light on the roles of the different components of fat.