Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 49
1 on a daily basis, the remaining half (60 per cent, in fact)
2 has got to be very low in fat to get his average down to
3 something like 30 or 35, very low by English standards. If
4 he starts off with a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea which,
5 together, take nearly half a pint of milk he has got on
6 board quite a lot of fat there, and so on.
7
8 So, I am not sure just taking the proportion, the figure of
9 calories which are in actual pure fat, as it were, is
10 helpful. Do you see my point?
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: I do, but, with respect -- I do not really want to
13 argue it now -- I cannot see (I say this as politely as I
14 can) that your Lordship's approach can be correct because
15 it does seem to me that what matters is what contribution,
16 and, I mean, of course, the question how far this affects
17 the diet as a whole is a completely separate one, but how
18 far the contribution which McDonald's makes in terms of fat
19 to the total nutrient requirement, which in the first case
20 is roughly half of the recommended amount and in the second
21 case under a third, can be said to be influential, or
22 fairly influential, upon the rest of what the person eats.
23 If he goes and eats other things which contribute the other
24 half and the other two thirds of his recommended amount of
25 energy from fat from other sources, so be it. But
26 McDonald's cannot be held responsible for that.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is a point of issue because I have got
29 to ask myself if someone who eats with any regularity in
30 McDonald's the sort of person who goes off and has nothing
31 but fresh fruit at the next meal.
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: But he does not have to, is the point I am trying
34 to make.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know. We can have an argument about that
37 and no doubt we will have a discussion about it and I will
38 have to get to grips with it in my own mind. My
39 consideration at the moment is whether it is helpful to say
40 only something like a fifth -- you said 18 per cent --
41 about a fifth of his daily requirement comes from the pure
42 fat, nothing but fat, which he has ingested in the course
43 of that McDonald's meal.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: What in theory it means -- what the result on his
46 overall diet would be I do not know because that is a
47 separate question -- but what it means, if it is right, if
48 the figures are right (which I am sure they are), is that
49 he could actually have another McDonald's meal in that day
50 (if he could face it) and still not exceed -- in the second
51 case not by a long way and in the first case just exceed --
52 the government's recommended intake of energy from fat. He
53 might feel a bit too full. Of course, I accept that.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I mean, by my arithmetic, he would certainly
56 exceed it unless he -----
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: No, he would not, because in the first case he
59 would have just over 36, 37 percent.
60
