Day 014 - 20 Jul 94 - Page 62
1 difficulty. You have to do your best to get round it
somehow.
2
MS. STEEL: We have been trying to get the papers ourselves.
3 Because they are doing it for free we cannot expect them
to send it all over from America.
4
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us see how we go.
5
MR. RAMPTON: Professor Wheelock, can I turn to McDonald's food
6 because that is what this case is really all about? What
place do you feel the kind of food served at McDonald's,
7 by which I mean everything from lettuce leaves through to
Quarter Pounder beef hamburgers and large portions of deep
8 fried potato called American french fries, milk shake
birthday cakes, sausage McMuffins and so on and so forth,
9 what place do you feel that food of that kind has in the
diet of a person?
10 A. In what context?
11 Q. I was not trying to supply the words for you, because I am
not, strictly speaking, supposed to do that on a matter
12 which might be controversial. I will ask it in a slightly
more suggestive way, if I may, which is this: Do you or
13 do you not consider that food of that kind has a place in
a diet of a healthy person?
14 A. Yes, there is absolutely no problem about an
individual consuming meals in McDonald's. That is
15 entirely consistent with having a diet which meets the
recommendations in here, in this grey book, and there is
16 really no difference, in my view, between many of the
foods that are served in McDonald's and many of the foods
17 that we go out and buy in the normal supermarket.
18 Q. Can I ask you this then? Do you distinguish between the
calorific cholesterol fat sodium content of a single
19 McDonald's meal and that of a person's diet as a whole?
A. No, because any food, whether it comes from McDonald's
20 or Sainsbury's, or a health food store, all contribute to
the total diet of an individual.
21
MR. JUSTICE BELL: You finished that answer? I think it is
22 important to record that answer, but I can see it was not
what you were really asking.
23
MR. RAMPTON: It was not really what I was driving at. Suppose
24 it was put to you: "Look, those regular chips or that
cheeseburger has a 42 per cent fat content, therefore,
25 nobody should ever eat it", what is your response to that?
A. That is nonsense.
26
Q. What if a person ate, say, seven such cheeseburgers in a
27 week, would you say that he was committing suicide, being
very foolish?
28 A. It depends on what else he had in the diet.
29 Q. I expected that answer, but if you can look at them in
isolation, would seven times, 42 point whatever it is, fat
30 content in a week for that given weight of food be a silly
thing to eat?
