Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 22
1 Q. Very well then. Thank you.
2
3 MS. STEEL: Right. I cannot remember which page we were on.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a minute. It was 2.2.3 and I
6 cannot remember whether you read the last sentence in 2.2,
7 so perhaps read that again, "the table was calculated".
8
9 MS. STEEL: "The table was calculated by dietitians currently
10 providing advice on prevention of low birthweight based on
11 their own practice in London.
12
13 3.0 The national and international recommendations and the
14 response by the food industry.
15
16 Reducing the total fat and particularly the saturated fat
17 load is indeed the basic thrust of the health
18 recommendation, 21 of which were quoted in 1978 by the
19 joint expert consultation of the Food and Agricultural
20 Organisation and World Health Organisation that people
21 should do precisely that by moving away from high saturated
22 fat diets. That report also requested that meat producing
23 livestock be reared to provide leaner meat and less fat.
24
25 The Royal College of Physicians in 1976 specifically
26 referred to the need to reduce fatty red meat intake.
27 Since then there has been a remarkable concordance in the
28 recommendations by national an international expert
29 committees on the need to reduce total and particularly
30 saturated fat intakes. As I mentioned at the outset new
31 protective factors such as anti-oxidants and omega 3 acids,
32 have been brought into the recommendations.
33
34 I referred in my original evidence to the problem in
35 developing countries where McDonald's and other similar
36 fast-food chains are expanding. The risks foreseen by a
37 NATO workshop (1988) and by WHO of the impact on Western
38 diseases in developing countries was of an increase in
39 heart disease and western type cancers. I was in the
40 Philippines in January and lectured to their cardiac
41 society and other medical groups on diet and disease. I
42 was told that western coronary heart disease was now number
43 1 killer in Manilla. Their health statistics which I saw,
44 confirmed this position and described a twofold increase in
45 mortality from heart disease between 1970 and 1990.
46
47 Whilst many factors will have contributed to this
48 astonishing rise in mortality, diet will have been one of
49 them. It is worth remembers that the Philippines were
50 occupied by the US forces after the last war, a fact which
51 has left its influence. That mortality can respond to
52 dietary changes in a relatively short time is evidenced by
53 the drop in mortality from heart disease in the UK during
54 World War II. At the outbreak of the war, the government
55 created a Ministry of Food to ensure healthy nutrition at
56 home and in the fighting forces. The diet during the war
57 had a lower fat content and a higher proportion of fresh
58 vegetables from the "dig for victory" campaign.
59 Unfortunately, the Ministry was disbanded after the war.
60
