Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 45


     
     1
     2   Q.   But you would agree, from what you have just said you must
     3        agree, I think, that even if you were right about that it
     4        is not the McDonald's meal that is making the person's diet
     5        high in fat and so on, is it?
     6        A.   I would say that the type of meal that is a McDonald's
     7        meal -- if you are saying to somebody "It is nutritionally
     8        OK to have a McDonald's meal", as a health educator that
     9        message is somehow inappropriate because you want a total
    10        change in the style of eating.  It is also accustoming
    11        taste buds to a high sugar, a high sodium expectation, if
    12        you like, and if you are used to that sort of taste then,
    13        you know, you are going to sort of put lots of -- you might
    14        have a baked potato which is very healthy, then you might
    15        put lots of butter and salt on it to make it, sort of,
    16        acceptable to your taste buds, if you like.
    17
    18   Q.   Suppose a person eats a McDonald's meal once a week and the
    19        rest of the time he eats pork pies, bacon sandwiches, lamb
    20        chops, pork sausages, potatoes with butter on them, you
    21        could not attribute the effect on that person's diet, an
    22        unhealthy effect on that person's diet, to the McDonald's
    23        meal, could you?
    24        A.   Yes, I think you could because it is all in the
    25        context of a very poor diet.  So, yes, I think you could
    26        put it in that context, yes.
    27
    28   Q.   How is that?  Please explain.
    29        A.  Because the McDonald's type of meal, it is a style of
    30        eating.  I do not eat at McDonald's, for example, and if I
    31        were presented with that type of food I would find it very
    32        fatty, very salty, very sugary and, you know, people who
    33        are not accustomed to that way of eating would have --
    34        their taste buds, if you like, would be re-educated to want
    35        a different type of food.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just ask you about that.  Do you have
    38        a picture in your mind of what level of frequency that kind
    39        of a meal could accustom a child's taste buds to high salt
    40        and high sugar?  Once a day, twice a week, once a week or
    41        once a month?  Do you have a picture in your own mind, or
    42        not?
    43        A.   A picture.  It would, again, depend on what the rest
    44        of the diet was like and whether they had school dinners,
    45        what the food was like at home.  There would be a number of
    46        factors.  But if you want me to pluck something from the
    47        air, then, you know, I would say sort of once a month was,
    48        you know, was too much even, because in terms of that style
    49        of eating, but again that is a figure purely plucked out of
    50        the air.
    51
    52        Again, if somebody is eating at McDonald's, it is not just 
    53        McDonald's.  If you are eating -- you know, you might go to
    54        one type of take-away food; you know, the next week you
    55        might go to another type of take-away food, which is also
    56        just as high in fat and salt and sugar, etc., and low in
    57        fibre.
    58
    59        So, in terms of take-away meals, if you are -- it would not
    60        necessarily be the McDonald's meal itself.  It would also

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