ABSTRACT
It has long been claimed that a vegetarian diet can protect against major diseases such as heart disease, colorectal cancer, breast cancer etc (eg Kinlen et al, 1983; Phillips et al, 1980) but it is usual for nutritionists to try to focus on specific components of the diet in an effort to rationalize the observations. By focusing on dietary fibre, for example, the epidemiology of disease can be simplified and hypotheses for the mechanism of the protective effect proposed, tested and refined or rejected. Further, it allows the effects of diets based on rice, wheat, bananas, maize or potatoes to be rationally compared.
