Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 37
1 such is pathogenic. That is to say, the average food
2 supply and the average diet eaten by people in
3 industrialised countries like the UK increases the risk of
4 a large number of diseases, which have already been read
5 out. Among those the major killer diseases -- that is to
6 say, the major diseases that are liable to be identified
7 as the eventual cause of death of individuals --
8 cardiovascular diseases in general and then, specifically
9 within that, coronary heart disease and among cancers,
10 colon cancer and breast cancer and also prostate cancer.
11
12 Q. So if a supplier wants to have a good influence in
13 general, would it be true to say that it should be not
14 trying to achieve the average diet in this country, but
15 trying to improve the quality?
16 A. It would depend what the purpose of industry is. The
17 principal responsibility of industry is to its
18 shareholders, of course, and if your question is, if a
19 firm in the food industry wished to develop policies which
20 were in the interests of public health as well as policies
21 that were in the interests of its shareholders, and the
22 policies in the interest of public health were in response
23 to what is either generally recognised in the country in
24 question or, even more to the point, recommended by
25 government, then, yes, it would seek to moves its products
26 in the general direction of having less saturated fat,
27 less fat, less salt, less sugar and more fibre.
28
29 Q. Less than the average diet, is that what you are saying?
30 Not less than what they have?
31 A. Not necessarily less than their products were before,
32 and the less of the ones I have mentioned and the more of
33 -- the less saturated fat, salt, sugar, fat generally the
34 better and the more fibre the better. Well, up to a point
35 the more fibre the better. That is rather a dry way of
36 putting it. In terms of food, one would be talking about
37 more fruit and vegetables. It is striking, for example,
38 that retail supermarkets now make much more of promoting
39 and presenting the variety of fruit and vegetables.
40
41 Q. The question we are trying to address is, if a supplier
42 typically supplying foods which are in excess of the
43 typical diet, average diet, are its foods making a
44 negative contribution to the diet of the country or to
45 sections of the population?
46 A. Of course, yes.
47
48 Q. I am going to move on to the references.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are going to ask Mr. Cannon to refer to
51 parts of his book, are you, now?
52
53 MR. MORRIS: That could come after lunch, I think. We just
54 want to concentrate on some of his references, including
55 the book, to back up some of the statements he has made.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will come back to that.
58
59 I propose to have my lunch and then read the rest of the
60 references which you refer to in your letter, because I
