Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 28


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:   He did not know of any documents which the company
     3        currently produced which explicitly states the links
     4        between the diet and disease.  Then he was asked, because
     5        this is all in the context of health of the nation, that
     6        kind of stuff, at the top of page 56 why they did not put
     7        the government recommended guidelines for fat in the diet,
     8        and they said they did not have it in any McDonald's
     9        leaflet.
    10
    11        "Is there a reason for that?"  Answer, "No, we are under
    12        no obligation to the government.  The guidelines are target
    13        guidelines for the population, they are not legislation."
    14        Then he is asked, "Do you support the health of the nation
    15        initiative?"  Answer, "Yes."  Question, "The dietary
    16        recommendations?"  Answer, "Yes."  Question, "You say that
    17        the company want to support that and help the nation's
    18        diet.  Would that be right?"  Answer, "I think we have said
    19        that we want to serve more nutritious food."
    20
    21        That is all part of this, they want to serve more
    22        nutritious food because their food is less nutritious than
    23        it should be.
    24
    25        So, the point was...  Well, it was because we are not going
    26        to be flagging up the references for most of McDonald's
    27        witnesses apart from the ones that dealt with the links
    28        between diet and disease specifically.  We wanted to bring
    29        in Mr. Oakley as a company representative, and that only
    30        illustrates the company's kind of confusion on this issue.
    31
    32        Just to go back to this 1985 document, I wanted to point
    33        out that the context of this leaflet, of that section of
    34        the pamphlet, was right next to a heading "eating at
    35        McDonald's" with a picture of McDonald's food.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is the one on the left?
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:   The left is the section about, "there is a
    40        considerable body of evidence to suggest".
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Which page is that again?
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:   Pages 12 and 13.  So, in the context of that
    45        pamphlet -----
    46
    47   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Read out the words in the box on page 12.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:   "What else is needed for a healthy diet"?
    50
    51   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Then the one on page 13 is, "eating -----"
    52
    53   MR. MORRIS:   "Eating at McDonald's."  So the point I am going
    54        to say, in terms of the context of that advice, or warning,
    55        about links between diet and heart disease and cancer and
    56        the causal relationship between the two, the very next
    57        thing a person would read -- and this is the leaflet that
    58        was available to the public -- is about eating at
    59        McDonald's, and the point I want to say, the context is
    60        clearly the person reading that would assume that there is

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