Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 16
1 of consumption of fruit and vegetables and the highest
2 consumption of cheap high fat foods. The reason is very
3 simple: People cannot afford to buy large amounts of fruit
4 and vegetables and feed themselves and their children with
5 cheap high fat foods in order to prevent them from being
6 hungry all the time. It is a social fact.
7
8 Q. So, basically, you agree with what I have said but because
9 of social problems, it is difficult to implement and
10 improve things?
11 A. Yes. It would be a wonderful idea if everybody could
12 afford to buy the ideal diet that is recommended by this
13 Committee, but you suspect those who produce these reports
14 do not think about the consumer; they are thinking about
15 the science of food composition and what would be the ideal
16 for feeding human beings.
17
18 Q. "Ideal" in terms of preventing obesity, heart disease and
19 all the other problems that we have been talking about?
20 A. Well, there are a number of ways of preventing
21 obesity. Altering diet might be one of them but there is
22 a much simpler way and that is to eat less food or, better
23 still, to increase physical activity.
24
25 If you recognise that obesity in men has doubled in the
26 last ten years with no change in diet composition, we are
27 talking about something other than diet; we are talking
28 about physical activity.
29
30 Q. You are not trying to suggest, are you, that the
31 composition and nature of a person's diet has nothing to do
32 with obesity.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As I understand it, you are not saying that
35 at all. What you are saying is that there is an
36 intractable element about people's diet, for whatever
37 reason, whether they are just reluctant to change what they
38 have always eaten, or they cannot afford to eat what you
39 would see as a more beneficial diet. Does that really
40 summarise your point of view?
41 A. Yes, that is so, your Lordship. Dietary change is very
42 difficult to achieve, and certainly the notion that people
43 living in, say, Third World countries are going to
44 radically change their diets because of advertising or
45 something, it simply does not happen that way, but people
46 should have the opportunity, as we have, to sample
47 different cuisines and I visit Chinese food restaurants and
48 so on.
49
50 No doubt in Third World countries people would want to
51 sample Western food, but one is talking about a very small
52 affluent majority there, but changing food habits is very
53 difficult and changing levels of physical activity is
54 equally very difficult.
55
56 MS. STEEL: We will not get into advertising. I would make the
57 obvious point that if it is not going to change people's
58 diets then what is the point of doing it? Anyway, it has
59 been accepted by McDonald's, as far as I am aware, that
60 that is what they are trying to do.
