Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 22
1 constructions and so forth. "Our food is of the highest
2 quality; our ingredients prove it". This is good
3 copyright; I do not think it is particularly honest. You
4 do not -- logically speaking, ingredients do not prove
5 that food is of the highest quality.
6
7 This is to me an indication of the way that things are
8 going to go in this leaflet. There is no logical
9 connection between the two parts of that sentence. "At
10 McDonald's we believe food should do you good as well as
11 taste good". That is very interesting, because if that
12 truly is the case, then I would expect to see a range of
13 healthy menu items there effectively promoted and
14 competitively priced. This is not what one sees in
15 McDonald's. Perhaps at this point I could mention what
16 one does see at McDonald's and juxtapose that with this
17 quote?
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you want to do that or read the rest of
20 the paragraph?
21 A. The rest of the paragraph is ancillary; it says, "That
22 is why we have based our menu on good nutritious foods".
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Let us just ask you briefly, because we have had
25 other people that have gone into this; would you describe
26 McDonald's menu to be based on good nutritious foods?
27 A. The menu is not based on good nutritious foods. One
28 has to understand exactly what is being said here. A menu
29 is comprised of complete food items and dishes. I would
30 like to show you some photographs that I took a couple of
31 days ago in relation to this. I think it would be an
32 interesting juxtapositon.
33
34 Q. Let us come to those a bit later on. What is your
35 understanding of what the general opinion is on what is
36 healthy and what is good nutritious food?
37 A. Healthy good nutritious foods will be quite
38 low-in-fat, specially low in saturated fat; they will be
39 from fresh products, and they will be predominantly of
40 non-animal origin; in other words, lots of vegetables,
41 lots of fruit, particularly with particular reference to
42 green leafy vegetables. They are especially
43 health-promoting.
44
45 Virtually all the research that has accumulated over many
46 decades shows that. Also I have mentioned yellow and
47 orange type of fruits and vegetables. They are
48 particularly health promoting. Those are exactly the sort
49 of foods that are conspicuously not on McDonald's menu
50 items. So, here we have the beginning (and I will amplify
51 this later) of a credibility gap, the difference between
52 the image that is portrayed and the reality of the food
53 that is actually sold, and it is actually a huge gap, as
54 I hope you will see.
55
56 Q. OK. Let us just specify now the things you have related
57 in your statement regarding saturates?
58 A. Can I refer you to their page No. 5 which starts:
59 "What nutrients do we need?"
60
