Day 014 - 20 Jul 94 - Page 62


     
     1        difficulty.  You have to do your best to get round it
              somehow.
     2
         MS. STEEL:   We have been trying to get the papers ourselves.
     3        Because they are doing it for free we cannot expect them
              to send it all over from America.
     4
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us see how we go.
     5
         MR. RAMPTON:  Professor Wheelock, can I turn to McDonald's food
     6        because that is what this case is really all about?  What
              place do you feel the kind of food served at McDonald's,
     7        by which I mean everything from lettuce leaves through to
              Quarter Pounder beef hamburgers and large portions of deep
     8        fried potato called American french fries, milk shake
              birthday cakes, sausage McMuffins and so on and so forth,
     9        what place do you feel that food of that kind has in the
              diet of a person?
    10        A.  In what context?
 
    11   Q.   I was not trying to supply the words for you, because I am
              not, strictly speaking, supposed to do that on a matter
    12        which might be controversial.  I will ask it in a slightly
              more suggestive way, if I may, which is this:  Do you or
    13        do you not consider that food of that kind has a place in
              a diet of a healthy person?
    14        A.  Yes, there is absolutely no problem about an
              individual consuming meals in McDonald's.  That is
    15        entirely consistent with having a diet which meets the
              recommendations in here, in this grey book, and there is
    16        really no difference, in my view, between many of the
              foods that are served in McDonald's and many of the foods
    17        that we go out and buy in the normal supermarket.
 
    18   Q.   Can I ask you this then?  Do you distinguish between the
              calorific cholesterol fat sodium content of a single
    19        McDonald's meal and that of a person's diet as a whole?
              A.  No, because any food, whether it comes from McDonald's
    20        or Sainsbury's, or a health food store, all contribute to
              the total diet of an individual.
    21
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You finished that answer?  I think it is
    22        important to record that answer, but I can see it was not
              what you were really asking.
    23
         MR. RAMPTON:  It was not really what I was driving at.  Suppose
    24        it was put to you:  "Look, those regular chips or that
              cheeseburger has a 42 per cent fat content, therefore,
    25        nobody should ever eat it", what is your response to that?
              A.  That is nonsense. 
    26 
         Q.   What if a person ate, say, seven such cheeseburgers in a 
    27        week, would you say that he was committing suicide, being
              very foolish?
    28        A.  It depends on what else he had in the diet.
 
    29   Q.   I expected that answer, but if you can look at them in
              isolation, would seven times, 42 point whatever it is, fat
    30        content in a week for that given weight of food be a silly
              thing to eat?

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