Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 59


     
     1   Q.   Leaving aside grazing in Peckham, you have no data, do
     2        you, Dr. Lobstein, which enable you to wag a finger of
     3        admonition at McDonald's for poisoning their customers?
     4        A.  Explicity McDonald's or fast food?
     5
     6   Q.   This case is about McDonald's.
     7        A.  Unfortunately, for example, the British Nutrition
     8        Foundation Survey we looked at earlier that included
     9        figures on consumptions of take-away foods, did not
    10        indicate whether they came from McDonald's or not.
    11
    12   Q.   The answer to my question is:  "No, I do not have any such
    13        data", is it not?
    14        A.  I have not gathered it myself, certainly, but I am
    15        sure there is data is available.  I think the reference to
    16        the survey in Leeds by Fiona Carruthers might show that.
    17
    18   Q.   If it should turn out at the end of the case,
    19        Dr. Lobstein, that the numbers of people that ate
    20        McDonald's food more than once a week was insignificant in
    21        a population sense, then whatever you might say about
    22        fast food or fat food or sugary food or salty food could
    23        not be applied to McDonald's, could it?
    24        A.  I would still want to know what the trends were.  I
    25        would not take an absolute figure at the particular moment
    26        in time as being a sufficient argument.  I would want to
    27        know if there was an increase and, if so, what the likely
    28        impact of that increase would be.
    29
    30   Q.   Let me put to you an hypothetical question.  Suppose it
    31        turned out that McDonald's share of the burgerhouse market
    32        was about the same now as it was in 1982/83, but suppose
    33        it also turned out that the burgerhouse market generally
    34        was bigger -- right ---
    35        A.  Yes.
    36
    37   Q.   -- am I making sense -- than it was in those days, yet it
    38        still turned out that there was an insignificant number of
    39        people eating McDonald's food more than once a week, why
    40        then, the arguments against McDonald's would fall to the
    41        ground, would they not?
    42        A.  Not at all because the trend is still going in the
    43        direction, to my mind, of increased problem.
    44
    45   Q.   Let us turn to something you mentioned earlier which is
    46        balance.  You made reference to a document, or Mr. Morris
    47        or Ms. Steel did -- I forget which -- called The Balance
    48        of Good Health?
    49        A.  Yes.
    50 
    51   Q.   Which is one of your documents -- I say "your documents" 
    52         -- a document produced for this case.  You think it was 
    53        produced by the Health Education Council this year?
    54        A.  I understood it was published by the Health Education
    55        Authority this year.  I also understood it emanated from
    56        the Department of Health.
    57
    58   Q.   So much the better for my purposes.  Can you find it
    59        there?  (Handed)  Behind my first page is a page with a
    60        picture of what might be mushrooms or anything else on the

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