Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 20
1 of soil as part of a balanced diet and that would contain
2 nutrients but it would not mean it was a particularly good
3 idea, although it might actually be more nutritious than
4 McDonald's food.
5
6 Dr. Lobstein said that rather than using the word
7 'balance', the general view of health professionals was
8 that there should be greater consumption of healthy foods
9 and, in his view, McDonald's tend to take the basic food
10 ingredients and add fat, salt and sugar, encouraging their
11 customers to eat a worse diet.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
14
15 MS. STEEL: Can I just also refer actually to the evidence of
16 Peter Cox, who was a former marketing consultant and also
17 former chief executive of The Vegetarian Society? He gave
18 evidence as an expert in relation to the marketing of
19 food. Just in relation to the point about them not
20 alerting the public to the dangers of eating a high fat,
21 low fibre, et cetera, diet. He pointed out that the 'Good
22 Food Nutrition and McDonald's' pamphlet does make it clear
23 that McDonald's were aware in 1985 of the links between
24 diet and disease, and that his opinion therefore was that
25 the effect of the company's efforts to promote their
26 products as good nutritious food over the years was to
27 debase the concept of healthy eating to no more than a
28 cynical sales promotional ploy.
29
30 He went on to say that the company's claim that it was
31 concerned about healthy eating was not borne out by the
32 products that they sold; that even their salads, which are
33 in fact only available in some of their stores, have a
34 ludicrously high fat content with over 50 percent of the
35 calories coming from fat, which is way over the government
36 recommendations. We heard that at the time that he was
37 giving evidence the company were promoting their newest
38 menu item, the MegaMac -- I am not sure whether that is
39 still available or not -- which comprised of four meat
40 patties and had huge amounts of fat and saturated fat.
41 I think that showed that they do not have any serious
42 desire or intention to promote healthy eating or to really
43 improve the situation of what is available and how they
44 promote it within their stores.
45
46 You might remember that Mr. Morris put to one of McDonald's
47 witnesses about the suggestion that -- I think they were
48 saying that healthier products were hard to produce, or
49 something, or were not as fast. Everything was about being
50 fast, and Mr. Morris suggested a fruit bowl and the company
51 did not... Well, were not receptive to that, anyway, which
52 is an indication of how serious their intent is as well.
53 Mr. Cox said that there was a huge credibility gap with
54 McDonald's -- the difference between the image that they
55 portrayed and the reality of the food that they sold -- and
56 he believed that the few positive steps that they had taken
57 had been taken rather grudgingly as a result of public
58 pressure, which is exactly our position. If I could just
59 have a second to sort that out.
60
