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

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