Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 14
1 saturated fat calculations which in any case the World
2 Health Organisation recommends should be between 0 and 10
3 percent of calories from saturated fat and maximum, and
4 i.e., saturated fat is just considered to be not needed in
5 the diet because we can quite happily have 0 percent of it,
6 but obviously McDonald's food is high in saturated fat.
7
8 It does not take into consideration the other nutrients.
9 The lack of specific -- well, for a start, the high salt
10 and sugar content and the lack of vitamins and other
11 nutrients in those meals, but very specifically the lack of
12 fresh fruit and vegetables which are so highly recommended
13 in order to -- well, especially the green vegetables which
14 are protective against cancer, colon cancer in particular,
15 but generally the lack of those in McDonald's food, and of
16 course it is not just the lack of them but the fact that,
17 as virtually all the experts have agreed, such meals
18 displace those healthy foods from the diet in many ways,
19 and the additional point that the lack of bulk in a
20 McDonald's meal, because of the high energy concentration,
21 would lead people to eat additional food to satisfy their
22 hunger during the day and people.
23
24 This is another point I am coming on to, that it is
25 unrealistic to expect that people will be eating healthy
26 food for the rest of the week; they are going to be eating
27 more unhealthy food and this is the basic cause of obesity
28 in this country, the overeating of energy rich foods which
29 do not have the bulk to satisfy the diet. And they are
30 eating too much fat and sugar. I will mention something
31 about Professor Keene in a minute on obesity.
32
33 So these are all compounding factors that magnify the
34 specific risk of eating specifically McDonald's meals a
35 number of times in a week. It is also compounded by the
36 fact that we know that McDonald's know and have given
37 evidence on, accepted the evidence on, that people eating
38 their kind of food regularly are also eating similar kinds
39 of diets at other take-away establishments. So we can
40 forget the pretence about people who eat at McDonald's
41 regularly balancing their diet. McDonald's know very well
42 that they are not.
43
44 And, on top of that, another compounding factor - and all
45 of these are compounding and magnifying a number of times
46 over the risk - they are actually targeting heavy users in
47 order to increase the number of visits. That was admitted
48 by David Green, if you remember, when we challenged him.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I have that point in mind.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: Yes. And ----
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have got the references for that, in fact.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: Right, okay. Considering that heavy users are
57 responsible for 77 percent of all their visits in the
58 United States, then we must consider that McDonald's is
59 completely dependent on heavy usage to maintain their
60 profit levels.
