Day 031 - 05 Oct 94 - Page 43
1 A. Yes.
2
3 Q. -- were they not, so far as fat is concerned?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. Although 85 per cent were above the 10, 11 per cent
7 recommendations which we have seen in some of the
8 papers ---
9 A. That is right.
10
11 Q. -- for saturated fat?
12 A. That is correct.
13
14 Q. No, I have that wrong. About two-thirds of the children
15 were above?
16 A. Two thirds of the children were above 35 per cent
17 which was the recommendation of, the intermediate
18 recommendation, for total fat, yes, and 85 per cent were
19 above the 10 per cent mark -- well, more than 11 per cent.
20
21 Q. I have to say the next sentence surprises me, but there
22 you are; that just shows one must not have preconceived
23 notions about these things.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: I am sorry, what is that sentence?
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is: "A higher proportion of girls than
28 boys were outside the recommended limit for both fat and
29 saturated fat". Without knowing anything about it, I
30 would have thought boys might be higher than girls, but it
31 just shows how you can be wrong.
32
33 THE WITNESS: I have to share that preconceptions; before we
34 saw the data I thought precisely the same.
35
36 MS. STEEL: Just going back to your statement now on page 8 --
37 we have finished with that paper now -- the paragraph
38 starting at line 9, could you just explain a little about
39 what you mean by what you have written there?
40 A. Well, I mean, I think that there is a view that you
41 cannot change people's diets, and that is clearly wrong
42 because people's diets have changed and certainly changed
43 over the last 30 or 40 years. I think it gets back to
44 this issue of persuasion, and there is no doubt that
45 McDonald's have been highly successful in persuading
46 people to come through their doors.
47
48 I think really I have said all this before, that the sort
49 of style of food which they promote is not only a question
50 -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with somebody going
51 in and having a McDonald's; what I am really getting at
52 here is that the powerful force, the quantitative force of
53 the very large number of outlets is having an impact on
54 the way people perceive food and behave with regard to
55 food. It is very clearly seen in the way that the success
56 these outlets have in developing countries.
57
58 It is a very persuasive and aggressive marketing technique
59 that has been employed in Jakata, just opposite the World
60 Health Organisation's offices there is a large McDonald's
