Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 41


     
     1        sales of hamburgers and chips.
     2
     3        He also did the same calculations for adults and said that
     4        for adults the daily maximum intake would be 92 grams of
     5        fat and I think some of the meals had a fat content of 78
     6        grams, so that would be 70 percent of their maximum daily
     7        intake.
     8
     9   MR JUSTICE BELL:  I think something has gone wrong there.
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  My notes are a bit --
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:   I think, shall we say, that Tim Lobstein was
    14        calculating on the basis of the government's
    15        recommendations and Helen has made this point, but really
    16        it should be calculated on the World Health Organisation's
    17        recommended 15 percent calories from fat and diet to be
    18        really concerned about optimum health, which would be less
    19        than half of the government recommendations.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:   I think these figures that he gave were all given
    22        on day 32, page 42, so perhaps if you could read that
    23        section with particular care, or whatever.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   He did say, I think, that the meal that he had
    28        referred to only contained 8.2 percent of a child's vitamin
    29        A requirements and only three percent of an adult's vitamin
    30        A requirements, so in terms of the fact that you were
    31        getting a large percentage of your daily fat intake from
    32        one meal you were only getting a tiny percentage of one of
    33        the vitamins that you needed from that same meal.  He,
    34        I think, in particular, dealt with the issue about how to
    35        judge whether or not a product or meal was low in vitamins
    36        and minerals.  He concluded that the nutrient density in a
    37        McDonald's meal is low but there is an excess of fat and
    38        calories for the other nutrients, so it cannot be
    39        classified as nutritious.  That was day 32, page 44.
    40
    41        Just around that same page, he did make the point that the
    42        maximum intake of sodium for adults would be 2.4 grams per
    43        day and that a McDonald's meal would provide 60 to 62
    44        percent of that daily intake, and that is just in one meal,
    45        and that is the maximum recommended intake; that is not
    46        what is actually a good idea to take.
    47
    48        For his part, Dr. Barnard stated that the fat content in a
    49        McDonald's meal is higher than an average and unmodified
    50        diet and I think that ties in with the point that Dr.
    51        Lobstein made about McDonald's taking the basic ingredients
    52        and then adding fat, salt and sugar to make the products
    53        more palatable, and in comparison to the most conservative
    54        nutritional recommendations McDonald's meals were still
    55        quite high in fat content.  That was Dr. Barnard again on
    56        day 33, page 8.
    57
    58        Dr. Barnard said, and this is what I was referring to this
    59        morning, that the effect of fat in an individual meal can
    60        be shown, but on top of that, what is more important, is

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