Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 20
1
2 Q. So it is because they are taking that kind of comprehensive
3 view?
4 A. Yes. They are looking at all the nutritional problems
5 throughout the world and what one might do about it.
6
7 Q. We will leave it at that. No further questions, thank you
8 very much.
9
10 Re-examined by Mr. Rampton:
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12 MR. RAMPTON: Professor Naismith, when Ms. Steel was asking you
13 about the desirability of eating fruit and vegetables, you
14 said: "Well, if you think about the average person who does
15 have a healthy well balanced diet, he or she does eat fruit
16 and vegetables but not in such quantities as to affect
17 appetite". Do you remember saying that?
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. If that be right, can I ask you what, in your opinion,
21 would be in broad terms the other constituent elements of a
22 healthy balanced diet beside the fruit and the vegetables?
23 A. Well, if one thinks in terms of simply meeting the
24 requirements for all the nutrients and energy, and when
25 I say meeting energy requirements, that would include not
26 exceeding them, one is going to have a variety of foods
27 from all different sources. This would include meat,
28 because we are, by nature, omnivores. It would include
29 fish, fruit and vegetables and cereals, a mixed diet.
30
31 A variety in one's diet is more likely to ensure an
32 adequate intake of all the nutrients than a limited diet,
33 and a limited diet is very often the result of poverty and
34 the results of an unbalanced diet which may have excesses
35 of certain nutrients such as fat, but within a balanced
36 diet, an infinite variety of foods can be incorporated.
37
38 As I have pointed out before, the quality of nutritional
39 value of a single food is of no relevance. It depends
40 simply on what it contributes to the diet and how
41 frequently you eat it.
42
43 An example of this, I might quote a positive one, is that
44 parsley is a wonderful source of vitamin C, very rich
45 indeed, but what does that contribute to your diet?
46
47 Q. I am sorry, I am having difficulty in hearing you. That is
48 partly because you are indistinct and partly because I am a
49 little deaf. Do you think you could bellow at me? Could
50 you shout at me a bit, please, as I am having difficulty in
51 hearing you?
52 A. Yes. If one is thinking of not a diet but a single
53 food and what they contribute to a diet, one can say very
54 positive things and very negative things about food. For
55 example, I cite the example of parsley, which is an
56 extremely high content of vitamin C, but how much parsley
57 does one eat? It contributes practically nothing to the
58 diet.
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60 Another example might be olives, which are highly priced,
