Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 15
1
2 Now, a few extra points that crossed my mind that are
3 compounding factors. Let me have a look. Another
4 compounding factor is that while all of these visitors
5 would be at additional risk because of the amount of meals
6 they eat at McDonald's and all the other compounding
7 factors, then some of them would be an even greater
8 additional risk because of particular vulnerability or
9 susceptibility to disease.
10
11 For example, they may have the onset of the disease and not
12 know it. Obviously it takes 20/30 years to develop. They
13 may have particular genetic susceptibility such as family
14 history, which, as we know, is ruled out by some of the
15 surveys that we have looked at, the scientific -- some of
16 the studies that we have looked at, because of their
17 additional susceptibility.
18
19 And we have the fact that McDonald's target young people,
20 and I have sort of left out kids at this point, in terms of
21 under sixteens, but they target young people. Obviously
22 this has a direct effect in terms of specifically the age
23 of menarche issue. And just for example, and we will come
24 on to this later, that something like 4 percent of....
25 Hang on. Cancel that one.
26
27 The age of menarche would be relevant to the children that
28 do not appear in the equations in the Fairgrieve figures,
29 under sixteen, so we have not got the figures but we could
30 only presume that these kinds of foods are being promoted
31 and are being eaten in large numbers by girls approaching
32 menarche.
33
34 Then we have another compounding factor, which is that in
35 terms of responsibility, McDonald's responsibility for the
36 situation of deteriorating health in this country and the
37 USA, is that they are marketing this kind of food as
38 nutritious, and because they are targeting young people,
39 they are influencing lifelong dietary habits, not just by
40 providing an example of kind of food and encouraging people
41 to eat a lot of it when they are young, but actively
42 mis-educating people that this is the kind of food that is
43 healthy for you.
44
45 And McDonald's is by far the largest advertiser to young
46 people of fast food meals. I think we heard something like
47 75 percent of TV fast food advertising and 95 percent of
48 radio advertising. So in percentage terms, McDonald's has
49 to bear a great responsibility for this mis-education.
50
51 A few extra points relating to this area of
52 responsibility. McDonald's additionally try to make their
53 food attractive through the high fat, salt and sugar
54 content generally added to the basic ingredients, which,
55 again because they are targeting young people in many
56 cases, although not all their customers are young, they are
57 setting a pattern where people expect -- their bodies begin
58 to want food that is high in fat, salt and sugar, because
59 they get a taste for it and it has been said a craving, not
60 in a sort of addictive scientific sense, but, as we all
