Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 44
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2 THE WITNESS: Can I make a different comment here, which is
3 that there is an awkwardness about the use of word
4 "balance" anyhow. If you eat food that is not nutrient
5 dense, that has -- as, for example, I have tried to
6 indicate here -- a large amount of fat and quite a lot of
7 the calories for the amount of nutrients in it, then,
8 obviously, it is desirable to try and compensate in some
9 way by eating food that is low in fat and very rich in
10 nutrients to "balance".
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12 On the other hand, the opposite does not apply, which is
13 that if you are eat a food which is rich in nutrients and
14 low in fat, it is not essential to balance it with a diet
15 such as this. So the word "balance" is rather an odd -- I
16 would prefer not to use the word "balance", but simply to
17 suggest a greater consumption of healthier foods.
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19 MS. STEEL: Would the meals suggested here fit within the
20 description of a healthy meal?
21 A. As I have tried to indicate, the nutrient density here
22 tends to be rather low. There is an excess of fat and
23 calories for the other nutrients, so I would not classify
24 it as something on the positive side of nutritious.
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26 MR. MORRIS: Just one last point on that: McDonald's have said
27 their food can be eaten as part of a balanced diet. Have
28 you any comments on that?
29 A. I would say that in a sense you could eat a role of
30 sellotape as part of a balanced diet. It is not a very
31 meaningful phrase to say "part of a balanced diet". It is
32 obviously the proportion of the whole diet that is being
33 met by these sorts of foods that is of significance.
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35 In other words, if you are eating foods such as this
36 frequently, then that is an enormous part of the diet and
37 would have a major impact and should be looked at
38 carefully. If you are eating foods such as this once a
39 year, then I would say it is a very tiny part. So I find
40 the phrase meaningless.
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42 Q. Is there a better way of looking at diet rather than
43 looking at it in terms of balance?
44 A. Well, I would reemphasise that you cannot balance bad
45 against good in quite the same way as one might balance
46 left wing parties against right wing or other ways in
47 which the word "balanced" is used in the media. I would
48 suggest here that the promotion of healthy foods means the
49 promotion of foods that have a high level of nutrients for
50 the calories and particularly high levels of nutrients for
51 the calories derived from fat.
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53 Q. If we go back to your statement, page 3 of your statement,
54 it is the second supplementary statement.
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56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I put that away now?
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58 MS. STEEL: Yes.
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60 MR. MORRIS: You have said in that third paragraph that you
