Foreword
by
Denis P. Burkitt. M.D.
In January， 1977 I first visited Nathan Pritikin and exam-
ined his work. This visit and follow-up visits in January，
1978 and 1979， convinced me that good results were
being achieved in the cardiovascular diseases and some
other diseases that were being specifically investigated.
My colleague， Dr. Hugh Trowell， and I were impressed
by the similarities between the dietary and exercise regime
being recommended by him and his staff and the style of
life practiced in communities in the third world who have
minimal prevalences of many diseases that are character-
istic of modern Western culture.
Nathan Pritikin has put maximu~ emphasis on re-
duction of fat and cholesterol intake， bikl~ almost inevitably
his low fat diet of unrefined foods is higll in fibre rich car-
bohydrates. There is almost invariably a reciprocal rela-
tionship between the amount of fat and fibre consumed.
There is now good epidemiological， clinical， and in some
eases experimental， evidence indicating a relationship be-
tween fibre-depleted diets and prevalences of such com-
mon diseases as large bowel cancer， gallstones， varicose
veins， hemorrhoids， diverticular disease of the colon， ap-
pendicitis and hiatus hernia.
It might be best in our present state of knowledge to
consider fibre as potentially protective against these dis-
eases. This does not rule out the possibility of several
eauses. All of these diseases have been shown to have
l:their maximum prevalences in communities in which， as a
fdirect result of an inadequate fibre intake， intestinal con-
trent is small in volume and firm in consistency and slow
in its transit through the bowel. Hypotheses that are con-
sjstent with epidemiological and other evidence have been
formulated to explain the relationship between fibre-de-
diets and these diseases. Although there is
no
way
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