Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 61
1 answer questions about, for example, cancer and heart
2 disease, again in much the same way as the other passages
3 I have quoted or have been cited do.
4
5 Q. There is one bit I was going to ask you to comment on, it
6 was something that came up in earlier hearings but not in
7 relation to cancer. It was the last but one page headed
8 "Healthy Food the Consumers' Right". It is the second
9 column under: "If I eat lots of healthy food won't I get
10 fat?" This came up in the context before under concerns
11 about obesity.
12 A. What page number is this?
13
14 Q. 15, is it? There is a tomato at the bottom of the page.
15 Do you have it?
16 A. I have found the tomato, yes.
17
18 Q. "Healthy food: The consumer's right" is at the top of the
19 page?
20 A. Yes.
21
22 Q. On the right-hand column, the second paragraph: "If I eat
23 lots of healthy food won't I get fat? Vegetables, fruit
24 and vegetables and potatoes and bulky and naturally
25 satisfying. You can eat lots of them without gaining
26 weight if you eat less fat and sugar. For example, if you
27 cut out just 30 grammes, one ounce, each of fat and sugar
28 a day, you will be cutting over 350 calories. This alone
29 makes room for a substantial snack meal such as a sandwich
30 plus fruit or a helping of pasta or pizza with a lot of
31 fat topping. If you did not replace these calories you
32 would lose weight at the rate of roughly a pound every 10
33 days". Just as a statement concerns about obesity and the
34 kinds of foods people should focus on, is that a
35 reasonable statement?
36 A. Yes. What that is referring to is another important
37 issue. As you say, it is do with overweight and obesity.
38 The issue is between what is sometimes called nutrient
39 dense foods and calorie dense foods, allowing for the fact
40 we have all have finite capacities -- that is to say, our
41 bellies are not infinitely expandable, or never infinitely
42 expandable. The common sense point which I am happy to
43 say has sufficient scientific backing is that if you eat
44 foods which are concentrated in calories, fatty foods and
45 also fat fatty sugary, bearing in mind sugar is often used
46 to make food palatable as in confectionery, you are likely
47 to eat too many calories before you feel full; whereas if
48 you eat foods that are bulky, naturally bulky foods like
49 cereal foods, like fruit and veg, you will feel full
50 before you consume too many calories. So, it is a
51 commonsensical way of weight control which works.
52
53 Q. Is that the kind of generally accepted approach to
54 avoiding obesity?
55 A. It is one of the several accepted approaches nowadays,
56 yes.
57
58 Q. But in terms of dietary approach?
59 A. Yes.
60
