Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 60
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is page 16.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Page 16. The point there about -- do you want to
4 read that paragraph?
5 A. The paragraph under the asterisks: "The Committee
6 suggests that agencies involved in education of public
7 information should be encouraged to disseminate
8 information on the relationship between dietary
9 nutritional factors and the incidence of cancer and to
10 hypothesise the conclusions to implement dietary
11 guidelines in this report. It should be made clear that
12 the weight of evidence suggests that what we eat during
13 our lifetime strongly influences the probability of
14 developing certain kinds of cancer. It is not now
15 possible, and may never be possible, to specify a diet
16 that protects all people against all forms of cancer. The
17 co-operation of the food industry should be sought to help
18 implement the dietary guidelines described above."
19
20 Then it mentions the recommendation -- then it recommends
21 that the NCI issue guidelines which, indeed, it then did
22 do.
23
24 Q. Yes. So if, for example, the food industry produces
25 nutritional information about its products, is it saying
26 there that they should include the kinds of conclusions
27 they are coming to in this report?
28 A. Well, people do not eat leaflets. I think the
29 recommendation there is, I think, what is really meant
30 there is that the nature of food itself should change
31 rather than the nature of what is printed to advertise the
32 food.
33
34 Q. What about the next document which is entitled: "Eat
35 well, live well; healthy eating campaign". Do you want to
36 briefly summarise who produced this document?
37 A. I thought it might cheer up the court to have
38 something not only in ordinary language but with some
39 pictures on it after all this rather dry text. This
40 document was produced to accompany the launch in the
41 United Kingdom of the 1990 WHO report and, as you can see
42 if you have a copy of the whole thing, the inside front
43 cover, identifies its status because it is signed by
44 Professor Phillips James who is Chairman of the WHO
45 panel.
46
47 What happened was a group of public interest organisations
48 got together to produce the report. It was funded by the
49 Health Education Authority. The administration for the
50 initiative was supplied by the Consumers Association and
51 other bodies, notably, the Guild of Food Writers and the
52 Coronary Prevention Group drafted the report to be
53 approved by Professor James. So that what you see there
54 in clear terms, and very much in food related terms, is
55 what the WHO Report recommended.
56
57 This document does not have too much to say about
58 disease. It is deliberately pitched in a rather positive
59 way. But towards the end there are two pages called "Food
60 Nutrition and Health: Your Questions Answered" which
