Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 14


     
     1        on the issue in health promotional literature and in daily
     2        newspapers and on television, and so on.
     3
     4        If I just go through some of the important points that we
     5        feel have come out of the trial, some of the important
     6        evidence that has come out of the trial, and again, as on
     7        the other issues, we do not want this to be taken as these
     8        are the only points that we consider are important.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   No.
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   They are just particular points that we wish to
    13        highlight.  We heard from Professor Colin Campbell, the
    14        chair of Dietary Prevention of Cancer Worldwide from the
    15        United States, that Dietary Prevention of Cancer Worldwide
    16        is a highly distinguished, international committee of
    17        scientists set up to look into and evaluate the links
    18        between diet and cancer.  So clearly he had a great deal of
    19        experience and expertise on this issue, and his view, which
    20        was supported by his own research work, for example the
    21        China study, was that a high fat, low fibre diet is causal
    22        in the development of a wide range of cancers and
    23        cardiovascular diseases.  Additionally, even smaller
    24        additions of food of animal origin to an otherwise all
    25        plant diet cause the occurrence of these diseases.
    26
    27        He agreed with the reference in the World Health
    28        Organisation Executive report, which stated that the entire
    29        population of most affluent countries shows a high risk
    30        profile.  Obviously, that view about the entire population
    31        of most affluent countries showing a high risk profile is
    32        particularly relevant to the point in the meaning that you
    33        determined about whether or not the risk of getting these
    34        diseases is a very real risk.  Furthermore, he personally
    35        was convinced that these serious diseases of heart disease
    36        and cancer were largely preventable by dietary means.
    37
    38        There was the evidence of Geoffrey Cannon, a defence
    39        expert, who is the chairperson of the National Food
    40        Alliance of Consumer Organisations and also the scientific
    41        director of the World Cancer Research Fund, and he stated
    42        that the US government, the European Union and World Health
    43        Organisation all recommend reducing consumption of fatty
    44        food and increasing consumption of fruit, vegetables and
    45        other foods containing fibre in order to prevent the
    46        significant proportion of the large numbers of death each
    47        year from heart disease and cancer.
    48
    49        So here we have reference to all the major organisations
    50        who are making health recommendations, dietary
    51        recommendations, on the basis of health, and they are all
    52        saying roughly the same things as is said in the London
    53        Greenpeace fact sheet which McDonald's are suing us over.
    54
    55        He referred specifically to the 1990 World Health
    56        Organisation report, the statement in there that dietary
    57        factors are now known to influence the development of heart
    58        disease, various cancers, hypertension and diabetes.  These
    59        conditions are the commonest cause of premature death in
    60        developed countries.  The affluent type of diet that often

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