Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 45
1
2 Q. But you would agree, from what you have just said you must
3 agree, I think, that even if you were right about that it
4 is not the McDonald's meal that is making the person's diet
5 high in fat and so on, is it?
6 A. I would say that the type of meal that is a McDonald's
7 meal -- if you are saying to somebody "It is nutritionally
8 OK to have a McDonald's meal", as a health educator that
9 message is somehow inappropriate because you want a total
10 change in the style of eating. It is also accustoming
11 taste buds to a high sugar, a high sodium expectation, if
12 you like, and if you are used to that sort of taste then,
13 you know, you are going to sort of put lots of -- you might
14 have a baked potato which is very healthy, then you might
15 put lots of butter and salt on it to make it, sort of,
16 acceptable to your taste buds, if you like.
17
18 Q. Suppose a person eats a McDonald's meal once a week and the
19 rest of the time he eats pork pies, bacon sandwiches, lamb
20 chops, pork sausages, potatoes with butter on them, you
21 could not attribute the effect on that person's diet, an
22 unhealthy effect on that person's diet, to the McDonald's
23 meal, could you?
24 A. Yes, I think you could because it is all in the
25 context of a very poor diet. So, yes, I think you could
26 put it in that context, yes.
27
28 Q. How is that? Please explain.
29 A. Because the McDonald's type of meal, it is a style of
30 eating. I do not eat at McDonald's, for example, and if I
31 were presented with that type of food I would find it very
32 fatty, very salty, very sugary and, you know, people who
33 are not accustomed to that way of eating would have --
34 their taste buds, if you like, would be re-educated to want
35 a different type of food.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me just ask you about that. Do you have
38 a picture in your mind of what level of frequency that kind
39 of a meal could accustom a child's taste buds to high salt
40 and high sugar? Once a day, twice a week, once a week or
41 once a month? Do you have a picture in your own mind, or
42 not?
43 A. A picture. It would, again, depend on what the rest
44 of the diet was like and whether they had school dinners,
45 what the food was like at home. There would be a number of
46 factors. But if you want me to pluck something from the
47 air, then, you know, I would say sort of once a month was,
48 you know, was too much even, because in terms of that style
49 of eating, but again that is a figure purely plucked out of
50 the air.
51
52 Again, if somebody is eating at McDonald's, it is not just
53 McDonald's. If you are eating -- you know, you might go to
54 one type of take-away food; you know, the next week you
55 might go to another type of take-away food, which is also
56 just as high in fat and salt and sugar, etc., and low in
57 fibre.
58
59 So, in terms of take-away meals, if you are -- it would not
60 necessarily be the McDonald's meal itself. It would also
