Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 15
1 there is no conclusive evidence of this that they actually
2 do but it is a possibility.
3
4 Q. Well, bearing in mind what you have just said about
5 vegetarian diets, for example, would you accept that, by
6 and large, if people are eating a lot of fruit and
7 vegetables, they are more likely to be filled up and so
8 less likely to over eat in terms of energy intake?
9 A. Yes, if people were prepared to eat really large
10 amounts of fruits and vegetables, it could conceivably have
11 an effect. We are talking about a radical effect in
12 people's dietary habits which the majority of the
13 population, I suspect, would not be willing to accept or,
14 more importantly, could afford.
15
16 Q. When you talk about "really large", I do not know what you
17 are talking about here and perhaps you could explain?
18 A. Yes. Well, if you think about the average person who
19 does have a healthy well balanced diet, he does or she
20 does, eating fruit and vegetables but not in such
21 quantities as to affect appetite, in other words, you do
22 not eat four apples, you eat one apple. If you have two
23 helpings of vegetables with your main course, you do not
24 decide to have four instead. This is a radical change in
25 eating habits. People are very resistent to dietary
26 change.
27
28 Q. Right. You seem to go going through extremes but, for
29 example, there are recommendations that we should eat at
30 least 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables a day and, generally
31 speaking, people do not eat that many, as far as I am
32 aware; is that correct?
33 A. Certain sections of the population eat very much less
34 than that.
35
36 Q. That is that quite large sections in the population where
37 people eat less than that?
38 A. It is, yes.
39
40 Q. If people increased their intake of fruit and vegetables to
41 at least 5 portions a day, that does not include potatoes,
42 does it, as I understand it?
43 A. I do not think it does which I find strange since
44 potato is a vegetable.
45
46 Q. Right.
47 A. With fibre in it.
48
49 Q. Yes, but, anyway, it is five fruit and vegetables with
50 potatoes on top, and if they were eating more grain and so
51 on, cereals, then they would be more likely to be filled up
52 without eating lots of high fat and high energy dense food
53 products?
54 A. That is the theory. Unfortunately, the section of the
55 population in which we find the greatest instance of
56 obesity, the greatest instance of cardio-vascular disease,
57 hypertension and so on, is the poorest section. We are
58 looking at the Register of General Social Classes IV and V
59 and there you have by far the highest instances of these
60 degenerative diseases. You also have the lowest in terms
