Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 14


     
     1        saturated fat calculations which in any case the World
     2        Health Organisation recommends should be between 0 and 10
     3        percent of calories from saturated fat and maximum, and
     4        i.e., saturated fat is just considered to be not needed in
     5        the diet because we can quite happily have 0 percent of it,
     6        but obviously McDonald's food is high in saturated fat.
     7
     8        It does not take into consideration the other nutrients.
     9        The lack of specific -- well, for a start, the high salt
    10        and sugar content and the lack of vitamins and other
    11        nutrients in those meals, but very specifically the lack of
    12        fresh fruit and vegetables which are so highly recommended
    13        in order to -- well, especially the green vegetables which
    14        are protective against cancer, colon cancer in particular,
    15        but generally the lack of those in McDonald's food, and of
    16        course it is not just the lack of them but the fact that,
    17        as virtually all the experts have agreed, such meals
    18        displace those healthy foods from the diet in many ways,
    19        and the additional point that the lack of bulk in a
    20        McDonald's meal, because of the high energy concentration,
    21        would lead people to eat additional food to satisfy their
    22        hunger during the day and people.
    23
    24        This is another point I am coming on to, that it is
    25        unrealistic to expect that people will be eating healthy
    26        food for the rest of the week; they are going to be eating
    27        more unhealthy food and this is the basic cause of obesity
    28        in this country, the overeating of energy rich foods which
    29        do not have the bulk to satisfy the diet.  And they are
    30        eating too much fat and sugar.  I will mention something
    31        about Professor Keene in a minute on obesity.
    32
    33        So these are all compounding factors that magnify the
    34        specific risk of eating specifically McDonald's meals a
    35        number of times in a week.  It is also compounded by the
    36        fact that we know that McDonald's know and have given
    37        evidence on, accepted the evidence on, that people eating
    38        their kind of food regularly are also eating similar kinds
    39        of diets at other take-away establishments.  So we can
    40        forget the pretence about people who eat at McDonald's
    41        regularly balancing their diet.  McDonald's know very well
    42        that they are not.
    43
    44        And, on top of that, another compounding factor - and all
    45        of these are compounding and magnifying a number of times
    46        over the risk - they are actually targeting heavy users in
    47        order to increase the number of visits.  That was admitted
    48        by David Green, if you remember, when we challenged him.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, I have that point in mind.
    51
    52   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  And ----
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have got the references for that, in fact.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:   Right, okay.  Considering that heavy users are
    57        responsible for 77 percent of all their visits in the
    58        United States, then we must consider that McDonald's is
    59        completely dependent on heavy usage to maintain their
    60        profit levels.

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