Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 09


     
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     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you just pause a minute there?
     3
     4   MS. STEEL:  Sorry.  Fourth paragraph,"Again, similar
     5        calculations can be made which show that a typical
     6        McDonald's meal is also lacking in fibre, fresh fruit and
     7        vegetables and certain vitamins."   In terms of vitamins
     8        and so on, how do you judge whether or not something is low
     9        in vitamins?
    10        A.   Based on dietetic experience you would look at a meal,
    11        and a balanced meal or a good healthy meal would contain
    12        mostly, sort of, carbohydrates.  It would contain plenty of
    13        fruit and vegetables, and looking at a McDonald's meal you
    14        would see a distinct lack of fruit and vegetables.  Current
    15        advice is to eat more than 5 pieces of fruit and vegetable
    16        a day, and also vitamin C, you would suspect, would be a
    17        problem in a meal that did not contain fresh fruit and
    18        vegetables.
    19
    20             Other nutrients would be likely to be lacking as
    21        well.  Recent advice is to include antioxidant nutrients
    22        within meals.  They are exclusively found in fresh fruit
    23        and vegetables.  You would also know that if the meal was
    24        high in fat and animal protein that as a proportion of that
    25        meal you would know that the calories would be quite high
    26        and, therefore, that person would lack having certain
    27        vitamins and minerals because they are getting all their
    28        calories from a high fat, low carbohydrate, low fibre type
    29        of meal.
    30
    31   Q.   So that is displacing the more positive types of food.  Is
    32        that what you are saying?
    33        A.  Yes, it is unlikely that somebody could make up those
    34        vitamins and minerals on that type of meal, yes.
    35
    36   Q.   Right.  The recommendation to eat at least 5 portions of
    37        fruit and vegetables a day, does that include potatoes?
    38        A.   Not exactly.  It is more the green vegetables, the
    39        yellow vegetables, the coloured vegetables where you would
    40        find the antioxidant nutrients, and potatoes are not really
    41        a part of that, no.
    42
    43   Q.   But in terms of eating 5 pieces or portions of vegetable a
    44        day, fruit and vegetables a day, are potatoes on top of
    45        that or are the potatoes counted as part of that?
    46        A.   My understanding is that the type of fresh fruit and
    47        vegetables you want are the coloured ones, the green ones,
    48        the orange ones, the yellow ones, where you would find the
    49        antioxidant nutrients which protect against heart disease
    50        and cancer.
    51
    52   MR. MORRIS:  When you are talking about pieces or portions -- 
    53        when you said 5?
    54        A.  Well, you can see the figure from the WHO in the next
    55        paragraph is 400 grammes, but obviously fruit and
    56        vegetables vary in size but on average it would be like 5
    57        whole pieces, like a whole banana, whole apple, a whole
    58        pepper.  You know, it would be whole pieces rather than
    59        just a small portion.
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